100% found this document useful (2 votes)

781 views80 pages

Learning To Be A Sage + PDF

Uploaded by

Acrosomb

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

100% found this document useful (2 votes)

781 views80 pages

Learning To Be A Sage + PDF

Uploaded by

Acrosomb

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 80

Page 1

permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

applicable copyright law.

A Brief Biography of Chu Hsi
There is not a Chinese thinker since Mencius (fourth century B.C.) who is better known than Chu Hsi (11301200) or who has had more influence on Chinese
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

culture—indeed on East Asian culture—than Chu Hsi.1 Drawing on ideas raised by his predecessors, Chu developed a systematic metaphysics that dominated the
Chinese intellectual world until the early years of the twentieth century. Chu also wrote commentaries on the Confucian Classics, which in the fourteenth century the
Chinese government declared orthodox: from then on all candidates for the prestigious civil service examinations, in answering questions on the Classics, were required
to accord with Chu Hsi's interpretation of them. And since most Chinese with any education aspired to pass the examinations, most Chinese capable of reading read
U.S. or applicable copyright law.

and tried to master Chu's commentaries. Although some of these people no doubt remained unconvinced by Chu's interpretations of the Classics, few could escape
their influence altogether. Chu Hsi has thus cast a long shadow over the literate culture of China for the last eight hundred years.

Chu was born on 18 October 1130 in Yuch'i County, Fukien.
1
. The following are among the most useful scholarly studies on Chu Hsi: Chan, "Chu Hsi's Completion of NeoConfucianism"; Chang Liwen, Chu Hsi ssuhsiang yenchiu; Ch'ien
Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan; Fan Shouk'ang, Chutzu chi ch'i chehsüeh; Gardner, Chu Hsi and the Tahsueh; Morohashi and Yasuoka, Shushigaku taikei; Schirokauer, "Chu
Hsi's Political Career"; and Wang Mouhung (16681741), Chutzu nienp'u. In preparing this biography, I have consulted most of these works, particularly the Chutzu nienp'u.

The family's native home was Wuyüan County (in presentday Anhui), but Ghu's father, Chu Sung (10971143), had moved the family to Yuch'i to assume the post
of subprefectural sheriff.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

Chu Hsi entered elementary school in 1134 at the age of five. In 1140 his father, forced from office because of his outspoken criticism of Prime Minister Ch'in Kuei's
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

(10901155) policy of appeasement toward the Jurchen Chin, began to instruct the young Chu at home. Here, for the first time, Chu Hsi was taught the ideas of
Ch'eng I (10321107), the NeoConfucian master of the Northern Sung, and the relatively brief canonical texts, the Greater Learning (Tahsüeh) and the Doctrine
of the Mean (Chungyung), which later would become so central to his philosophical program.

When Chu Sung died in x 1143, Chu Hsi, following his wishes, continued his studies with three of his father's close friends—Hu Hsien, Liu Tzuhui, and Liu Mienchih
(whose daughter he would eventually marry). We do not know precisely what Chu studied with these men, but he would later complain that they had been fond of
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Buddhist teachings as well as Confucian ones, and, in fact, it was while studying under them that Chu began frequenting Taoist and Buddhist schools. According to his
own comments, his fascination with Buddhist teachings continued for ten or so years, ending when he was twentysix or twentyseven. The degree to which his Neo
Confucian teachings may have been directly influenced by this exposure to Buddhist ideas remains problematic for scholars. But there is little doubt that the vigor with
which he would later refute Buddhist teachings was affected by what he personally knew their allure to be. The man usually credited with showing Chu the errors of his
Buddhistic ways and bringing him firmly into the Confucian fold is Li T'ung (10931163), a friend of his father who had studied under Lo Ts'ungyen (10721135), a
disciple of Yang Shih (10531135), who, in turn, had studied under Ch'eng I. Chu Hsi visited Li T'ung on four separate occasions (1153, 1158 1160, and 1162),
formally becoming pupil in 1160.

In 1148, his commitment to Confucian teachings still not altogether firm, Chu Hsi, only nineteen years old, passed the chinshih examination. That he received the
degree at so young an age perhaps helps to explain his prodigious scholarly output. For Chu could devote those years that most literate Chinese spent preparing for
the civil service examinations to independent scholarship. Hav

ing passed the examinations, Chu was appointed subprefectural registrar of T'ungan in 1151, a post he took Up in 1153 and held until 1156. He conscientiously
supervised the local registers there, promoted education, built a library, strengthened city defenses, and reported on public morality. After leaving this post, he
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission

maintained himself in sinecures for roughly twenty years; not until 1179 did he take up another important office.
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

This period from 1156 to 1179 was extremely productive for Chu the scholar. He wrote and edited about twenty works and, at the same time, developed close
associations with the most prominent scholars and philosophers of the day. With Lü Tsuch'ien (11371181), a devoted friend, he compiled Reflections on Things at
Hand (Chinssu lu) (1175), which would later become the primer of NeoConfucian teachings. He carried on an extended exchange, in letter and in person, with
Chang Shih (11331180) and Lu Chiuyüan (11391193), largely over aspects of the selfcultivation process: with Chang he discussed the meaning of equilibrium and
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

harmony (chungho) of the mind (first described in the Doctrine of the Mean) and how such states could be attained, and with Lu he debated, most famously at the
Goose Lake Temple (1175), the relative importance in the selfcultivation process of "following the path of inquiry and study" (tao wenhsüeh) and "honoring the
moral nature" (tsun tehsing). Chu and Lu would never reconcile their philosophical differences, Chu insisting that inquiry and study were essential in guiding the mind
to moral rectification, and Lu that the mind is moral of itself and in little need of external guidance. The consequences of these differences were profound: Neo
Confucianism would later split into what has conventionally been characterized as Chu Hsi's school of principle (lihsüeh) and Lu Chiuyüan's school of the mind
(hsinhsüeh).

In 1179, Chu became the prefect of Nank'ang (in presentday Chianghsi). There his commitment to education continued, evidenced best by his efforts to revive the
copyright law.

White Deer Hollow Academy. The "Articles of Learning" (hsüehkuei) he compiled for the academy reflect his zealous devotion to learning for the sake of moral
improvement, not for the sake of worldly success. These "Articles of Learning" were to be extremely influential, serving as a model for academies throughout much of
East Asia down through the present century.

The wellknown invitation Chu extended to Lu Chiuyüan to lecture at the White Deer Hollow Academy in the spring of 1181 points up Chu's interest in making the
academy a place of serious intellectual reflection for students—after all, Lu was an outspoken philosophic rival of Chu's. In fact, so pleased was Chu in the end with
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from

Lu's lecture, which treated the distinction between righteousness and profit, that he asked Lu to write it down and later had it inscribed on stone.
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright

Chu Hsi's term at Nank'ang expired in 1181. In 1182 he assumed the duties of intendant for evernormal granaries, tea, and salt for Eastern Liangche (present
Chekiang), an area suffering from famine. To alleviate the suffering, he instituted the community granary (shets'ang), the purpose of which was to provide grain loans
to peasants at low rates of interest. Unlike Wang Anshih's (10211086) more famous "green sprouts" program, the community granary system lent the peasantry
grain, not money, and was to be managed voluntarily by prominent men on the village level, not by the state. It is difficult to know what success Chu might have had
with the community granary system, for he had but brief opportunity to implement it. In 1182, having indicted T'ang Chungyu (ca. 11311183), the prefect of T'ai
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

chou and a relative of the prime minister, for misconduct in office, he found himself an enemy of some of the most powerful men in the empire. Not only Chu but the
entire school of thought with which he was associated, called Taohsüeh ("Learning of the Way") by contemporaries, now came under attack by highranking
supporters of T'ang. Shortly thereafter Chu Hsi withdrew from office.

Chu would later hold, albeit briefly, two other important posts, serving as prefect of Changchou (Fukien) in 11901191 and prefect of T'anchou (in presentday
Hunan) in 1194. In late 1194 he was invited to become lecturerinwaiting at court, where he lectured to Emperor Ningtsung on the short Classic, the Greater
Learning. This lectureship lasted a mere fortysix days, for Chu became embroiled in a conflict with the influential imperial relative Han T'ochou (11511207) and
returned to Fukien. The attack on Taohsüeh, as a result, now intensified. In 1195 political adversaries equated it with Weihsüeh, "false learning," and a year later the
emperor himself proscribed the teachings of the school.
law.

During his lifetime, Chu Hsi declined many more offices than he

accepted; he served in public office for only nine or so years, much of the rest of the time holding temple guardianships. Chu's apparent unwillingness to serve has been
called the defensive reaction of an insecure person.2 More likely, it was the considered reaction of a person who in his childhood had witnessed his father's abrupt and
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from

painful dismissal from office over a policy difference with a powerful statesman. Perhaps, too, Chu simply wished to avoid what he viewed as the corrupt and unethical
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright

politics of the day; to serve when the Way did not prevail might have compromised his moral purity. Moreover, Chu may have also calculated that he simply would be
of better use to society transmitting the Way to others in classrooms and writings than in holding government office. In any case, by avoiding office Chu Hsi was no
doubt able to devote a great deal more time to teaching and writing.

This, of course, is not to suggest that Chu had little interest in the political order. For not only did he acquit himself with distinction in the offices he did hold but he also
submitted sealed memorials to the throne (in 1162, 1180, and 1188) and even went to the capital for personal audiences with the emperor (in 1163, 1181, and 1188).
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Certain themes ran through these memorials and personal audiences: the emperor, Chu argued, must rectify his mind and only then might the empire become tranquil;
the military must be made strong so that the central plain, the traditional heartland of Chinese civilization, might be recovered from the Chin (11151234), who had
settled there in the early twelfth century; and the emperor must establish sound personnel policies, selecting only worthy and talented men for government service.
Finally, we should not forget that although Chu may have spent much of his life developing and teaching a highly elaborate program for the selfcultivation of the
individual, his assumption and hope were that the moral cultivation of the individual would lead to social and political harmony.

Still, teaching and writing were clearly dearest to Chu. Throughout his life he exhibited an almost missionary zeal to pass the Confucian Way on to others. The
numerous years he spent discussing Confucian teachings with students, the record of which is found in the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically, attest
strongly to
law.

2
. Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi's Political Career," p. 188.

his commitment to transmitting the Way; so too do his voluminous writings, particularly his many commentaries on the Confucian Classics, which he hoped would help
to illuminate the Way embodied in the sacred canon.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Of all his writings perhaps the most significant and influential were the commentaries on. the Four Books—the Greater Learning, the Analects (Lunyü), the Book of
Mencius (Mengtzu), and the Doctrine of the Mean—known collectively as the Collected Commentaries on the Four Books (Ssushu chichu).3 Convinced that
the kernels of Confucian teachings were to be found in these four works, Chu spent much of his adult life reflecting on their philosophical significance and preparing
commentaries for them. As a result of the great weight he gave them, a major shift in the Confucian tradition occurred: from Chu's time until the early twentieth century
the Four Books would be the essential texts in the Confucian curriculum, replacing the longauthoritative Five Classics—the Book of Changes (I ching), the Book of
Poetry (Shih ching), the Book of History (Shu ching), the Book of Rites (Li chi), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch'unch'iu). It was the Four Books,
together with Chu Hsi's commentaries, that would serve as the basis of the civil service examinations.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Indeed, one of Chu Hsi's most widely recognized achievements, the elaboration of a systematic metaphysics, derived largely from his reading of the Four Books. This
reading, in turn, was influenced by ideas advanced by the great NeoConfucian thinkers of the Northern Sung, men such as Chou Tuni (10171073), Chang Tsai
(10201077), Ch'eng Hao (10321085), and particularly Ch'eng I. The metaphysical synthesis worked out by Chu represented a new
3
. Among the many books Chu Hsi wrote, edited, or annotated, in addition to those mentioned in this brief biography, were The Surviving Works of Messrs. Ch'eng of Honan (Ho
nan Ch'engshih ishu), An Outline for the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government (Tzuchih t'ungchien kangmu), An Explanation of the Western Inscription (Hsiming
chiehi), An Explanation of [Chou Tuni's] Explanation of the Diagram of the Great Ultimate (T'aichi t'ushuo chieh), Records of the Origins of the School of the Two Ch'engs
(Ilo yüanyüan lu), Collected Commentaries on the Book of Poetry (Shih chichuan), Original Meanings of the Book of Changes (Choui peni), Lesser Learning (Hsiao
hsüeh), Collected Commentaries on the Elegies of Ch'u (Ch'utz'u chichu), A Commentary on the Choui ts'ant'ungch'i (Choui ts'ant'ungch'i k'aoi), and Collected
Commentaries on the Book of History (Shu chichuan). His numerous essays, letters, prefaces, postscripts, tomb inscriptions, and other literary documents were collected
together in the Collected Literary Works of Master Chu.

development in Confucian philosophy: it was an attempt to give the traditional aim of Confucian teachings—the moral cultivation of the individual—an ontological
foundation. Man could become perfectly moral because the nature with which he was born was itself always moral; his endowment of psychophysical stuff, however,
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

had the capacity—if it was turbid, dense, or impure enough—to obscure the moral nature, and thus it had to be refined if the moral nature was to become manifest.
Chu Hsi's program of learning, at the heart of which lay the concept of ko wu, "apprehending the principle in things," was intended by Chu to be the means by which
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

man would refine himself and connect with his originally moral nature.

Chu Hsi would continue to polish his commentaries on the Classics and elaborate his philosophical system until his death on 23 April 1200. Nine years later, after Han
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

T'ochou had passed from the scene and the attacks on Taohsüeh had run their course, Chu was honored with the posthumous title Wen. In 1230 he was given the
title state duke of Hui; and in 1241 his tablet was placed in the Confucian temple. In the early fourteenth century Chu Hsi's thought was declared state orthodoxy and
remained so until the early years of the twentieth century.
applicable copyright law.

Chu Hsi and the Crisis of the Way in the Twelfth Century
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

Chu Hsi was not happy with the state of affairs in the China of his time. Although to the casual observer of some eight centuries later China of the Southern Sung
period seems culturally sophisticated and materially prosperous, to Chu Hsi the problems of the day seemed quite profound. Indeed, to Chu's mind China faced
something of a crisis.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Since the beginning of the Sung, foreigners had occupied territory traditionally belonging to the Chinese. First, in the midtenth century the Khitan tribespeople from
Mongolia extended their control over sixteen northern prefectures centered around Peking. In the early years of the twelfth century the Jurchen tribes of Manchuria in
turn extinguished Khitan power; but not content with the northern prefectures of the Khitan alone, Jurchen forces continued south, subjugating all of North China.
or applicable copyright law.

Henceforth, from 1125 until the fall of the dynasty, Sung control over China was limited to the area south of the Huai River. Chu, along with other officials and literati
of the Southern Sung, expressed displeasure with this occupation of the north and, even more, with the government's decision in 11411142 to Sue for peace with the
Jurchen rather than to fight for repossession of land that was rightfully Chinese.1

The occupation of the north clearly represented a political and
1
. For Chu's views on the Sung restoration of North China see Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism, pp. 169171.

territorial threat to the Chinese people. But for some, like Chu Hsi, it represented a cultural and moral threat as well: The Confucian assumption that when the true
Way prevailed in China those who came into contact with it would feel a great sense of awe and happily submit to it was one that Chu fully shared. That the Jurchen
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

had not submitted to the Chinese but had in fact overrun them, establishing their own Chin dynasty (11151234) in the north, demonstrated that the great Way, the
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from

Way that set the Chinese apart from (and above) all other people, had all but disappeared in the Central Plain, the heartland of Chinese civilization. The question
posed for Chu by the ''barbarian" subjugation of the north, then, was not simply how to strengthen China's military forces—though this was a concern of his—but how
to reinvigorate a weakened cultural and moral tradition.

If the Way was in decline, surely the emperor and the ruling elite bore much of the responsibility. And Chu was not shy about pointing a finger at them. In memorials
and letters to acquaintances he berated emperors and the bureaucracy for their moral turpitude; his refusals to accept official appointment were often cast in the form
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

of a protest against a corrupt and immoral government.2 Chu's own involvement in the factional disputes of the late twelfth century and the official condemnation of his
learning as "false learning" in the 1190s did nothing to disabuse him of his low opinion of the ruling order of the day. But as severe as Chu may have found the ills of
government to be, the cure for them, he was convinced, remained simple: the ruler merely had to rectify himself. Once the ruler became rectified, his majestic example
was sure to inspire those around him to become rectified; and with a ripplelike certainty moral example would exert its power from one person to the next, until the
entire realm achieved moral perfection. And thus the great Way would again prevail.3

The popularity of Buddhist teachings was also for Chu evidence that the times were out of joint. The Confucian Way, which to him was synonymous with the Chinese
cultural tradition (or at least
2
. See Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi's Political Career," particularly pp. 177179, 186.
3
. See, for example, Chu's memorial in Huian hsiensheng Chu Wenkung wenchi (hereafter Wenchi) 11.18b40b, discussed in Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi's Political Career," pp. 177179.

with the best parts of it), was losing ground to Buddhism, particularly the Ch'an school. Chu Hsi knew that Ch'an teachings were seductive, because he himself had
engaged in a study of them for more than ten years, beginning at age fifteen or sixteen.4 Indeed, his writings and conversations with disciples evince a rather deep fear
of Buddhism's allure for the people of his time: "Be they adults or children, officials, farmers, or merchants, men or women, all enter the Buddhist gates."5 He once
remarked that although families might have the wherewithal to resist Buddhist teachings for a generation or two, after the third generation they were sure to be "turned
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

around by them."6 What particularly worried Chu Hsi was the appeal Buddhist teachings seemed to have to the intelligentsia.7 It was these men he counted on to keep
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

the Confucian Way alive and well. If they surrendered to the foreign creed, whom could he depend on? "In the world there are but a few great men, and they've all
been drawn into Buddhism—how detrimental!"8 So attractive was Buddhism that even disciples of the great Ch'eng brothers, Chu's spiritual heroes, had turned to it.9
For Chuthis was strong proof of the power of Buddhist teachings and cause for deep concern over the survival of the Confucian Way.

In Chu's view, then, the "barbarian" occupation, the ineptitude in government, and the widespread popularity of Buddhist teachings all reflected a serious spiritual and
moral malaise. Chu devoted his life to the cure of this malaise, or as he might have put
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

4
. E.g., Chutzu yülei (hereafter YL) 104.9b10a/vol. 7, P. 2620. Throughout the footnotes, references to YL are to chüan and folio numbers of the Ch'uan ching t'ang edition and to
volume and page numbers of the Chunghua Shuchü edition. I give references to both because even though I find the Ch'uan ching t'ang edition the best available and base my
reading of the text on it the Chunghua Shuchü version is now the most readily available.
5
. YL 126.30b/vol. 8, p. 3037. The Ch'eng brothers had also been greatly disturbed by the allure of Buddhism; see Kasoff, Thought of Chang Tsai, p. 15. Hymes, Statesmen and
Gentlemen, pp. 177199, discusses the pervasiveness of Buddhism in Chinese society during the Southern Sung.
6
. YL 16.34a/vol. 8, p. 3041.
7
. See, for example, comments in YL 126.29b30a/vol. 8, pp. 30363037, 24.20b/vol. 2, p. 587, and 126.24b/vol. 8, pp. 30303031.
8
. YL 132.20a/vol. 8, p. 3183.
9
. YL 24.20b/vol. 2, p. 587 and 126.30a/vol. 8, p. 3037; see also YL, chüan 101, passim, and Ch'ien Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan, vol. 3, PP. 160197, passim.

it, to the resuscitation of the great Chinese Way. Learning—defining it and transmitting it—was at the heart of Chu Hsi's lifelong mission. Serving in official positions
would never have the same urgency for him, for in his mind China's wellbeing depended ultimately on the sort of learning pursued by the people of the day: the right
sort would lead to a revitalized China in which the true Way prevailed, the wrong sort to the continued decline of Chinese politics and society and the demise of the
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

Way.
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

The learning going on around him clearly was not the right sort. Muh of Chu's writings and recorded conversations with disciples read as harsh indictments of the
contemporary learning pursued by Confucians. To him their learning was nothing like that promoted by the great sages of the past. According to Chu, the sages had
taken as the one express aim of their learning "to understand moral principle clearly in order that they might cultivate their persons, thereafter extending [their
perfection] to others." But contemporary students of the Way seemed to abandon this aim completely as they scrambled to achieve far less noble goals—reputation
for profound thinking, literary renown, or even wealth and rank.10
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Inspired by a remark made by Confucius in the Analects, Chu drew a distinction between two antithetical kinds of learning: learning done for one's own sake or moral
betterment (weichi chih hsüeh) and learning done for the sake of others (weijen chih hsüeh), with a view toward impressing others and winning their acclaim.11 He
wanted students to become sensitive to the vast differences between them:

The important thing for students today is to distinguish between the paths. What's important is the boundary between "doing it for one's own sake" and "doing it for the sake of
others." "To do it for one's own sake" is to grasp the essence of things and affairs firsthand in reaching an understanding of them—you want to understand them for yourself. It
isn't to understand them recklessly, nor is it to understand them in a way that makes you look good, so that people will say yes, you have indeed understood; if this is how you
were to go about it, even supposing you did under

10
. Chu makes this argument in Wenchi 74.18b.
11
. In Lunyü 14/24, it is recorded: "The Master said: 'In antiquity men studied for their own sake; nowadays men study for the sake of others.'" See de Bary's discussion in Liberal
Tradition, pp. 2124.

Learning then had to affect the student to have any merit. If it had only a cosmetic value, beautifying the wearer in the eyes of beholders but not changing the inner self
in any way, it was not the learning pursued by men of antiquity—it was not true learning.

To Chu Hsi's great dismay it was "learning for the sake of others" that had become prevalent in the world of learning in twelfthcentury China. First, literati had become
intent on cultivating a reputation for "loftiness" and "ingenuity" and made little effort to reach true understanding. The effect this trend had on the reading of the Classics
was particularly troubling to Chu:
Those who discuss the Classics these days are usually guilty of one of four vices: raising up what's originally lowly so that it becomes lofty; reading meaning into what's
originally shallow so that it becomes profound; pushing away what's originally near at hand so that it becomes remote; and invariably making what's originally clear obscure.
These are the great evils plaguing current discussions of the Classics. (5.61)

Thus Chu routinely admonished his own students and friends not to be seduced into "abstruse and profound"13 explanations of things, for "not only will others not
understand you, but you yourself won't understand either."14 Students too prone to the abstract and lofty risked an even greater danger, that of "swerving from the right
path and entering into heterodoxy."15 This, Chu said, is precisely what had happened to Hsieh Liangtso (10501103), one of the Ch'eng brothers' outstanding
disciples.16
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

An equally pernicious practice from Chu's point of view was the too great emphasis students had come to place on literary expres
12
. References to passages that appear in the translation of YL in Part Two are given in parentheses. Reference is to the Part Two chapter and passage numbers (not to the YL
chapter numbers). References to passages from YL not translated in Part Two are placed in footnotes.
13
. Wenchi 56.1 a.
14
. Wenchi 39.22b; cf. YL 8.3a/vol. 1, p. 131 (2.14). Chu even leveled criticism at his good friend Chang Shih and the Hunan school for their tendency to speak much too abstractly; see
Ch'ien Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan, vol. 3, PP. 244247.
15
. Wenchi 39.10a11a.
16
. See YL 10112a/vol. 7, p. 2567. Despite Chu's charge, Hsieh has long been regarded as one of the Four Masters of the Ch'eng school.

sion. Although Chu Hsi was certainly capable of admiring a refined literary style, he was deeply concerned by what he saw as the contemporary obsession with belles
lettres at the expense of content. Ambitious to write well—or at least to be thought good writers—the people of his day were giver to the "novel," "unusual," and
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher,

"lofty" in expressing themselves; they did not particularly care about what they wrote, nor were they at all interested that what they write accord with the true meaning
of the Classics.17 From an early age students were encouraged in this tendency, to the point, Chu feared, that they were in danger of neglecting their moral character:
"Nowadays, beginning in their early youth, people are taught to compose couplets. As they get somewhat older, they are taught to compose showy prose. Both [these
practices] spoil their originally good natures'' (1.9).18 There was even a type of belletrist, Chu remarked, who never bothered to read the Confucian Classics at all.19
The purpose of Writing, thus, was not what it had been; no longer was it to make manifest the Way and its subtleties but father to flaunt one's skills and to gain social
acceptance as a cultivated person, a man of breeding: "In recent times those who write or do calligraphy and painting struggle to produce the novel and unusual in
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

order to please the censors of social customs."20

Chu thought much of the blame for this literary overaestheticism was to be placed at the feet of Su Shih (10361101). Su, along with Han Yü (768824), Ouyang
Hsiu (10071072), and others, had been almost solely concerned with literary style and only occasionally happened to touch on moral principle.21 In short, Su had
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

made the grave, and to Chu unforgivable, error of separating writing from the Way:

The Way is the root and trunk of wen [literary writing]. Wen is the branches and leaves of the Way. Only if it [wen] has its root and trunk in the Way will whatever is expressed in
wen be the Way. The writings of the sages and worthies of the Three Dynasties were all done with this convic

17
. Wenchi 37.20a and YL 139. 19b/vol. 8, p. 3316, 139.21a/vol. 8, p. 3318, and 139.23b/vol. 8, p. 3320.
18
. Although Chu here is quoting Lu Tzushou, he clearly shares Lu's sentiments.
19
. YL 139.8a/vol. 8, p. 3304.
20
. Wenchi 81.26a.
21
. YL 137.25b/vol. 8, p. 3276.

tion, and thus their wen was one with the Way. Now, [Su] Tungp'o has said, "What I call wen must go together with the Way." This is to take wen as wen and the
Way as the Way and to wait until. composing wen to look for a Way to put into it. This is the great flaw in [Su's] writing.... He does not first reach an understanding of
moral principle and then compose wen.22
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair

And unfortunately, according to Chu, Su strongly influenced literati of the Southern Sung, encouraging "a tendency toward the crafty and illusory."23

Striving after a refined literary style, then, was yet another way of learning for the sake of others rather than for one's own moral betterment: "To practice a thoroughly
studied, ornate style in the hopes of pleasing others is for a purpose other than one's own—it's shameful."24 It was also a great waste of time and energy,25 for if
students were to turn their attention first to "learning in order to understand principle, as a matter of course they would produce good writing."26 That is, good writing
would flow spontaneously from a sound understanding of principle.27

Still, for Chu Hsi the gravest contemporary threat to true learning was, ironically, posed by the Confucianbased civil service examinations. The prospects for worldly
success that they offered
22
. YL 139.22ab/vol. 8, p. 3319; cf. the translation in Lynn, "Chu Hsi as Literary Theorist," p. 338.
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

23
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

. Wenchi 37.20b. He also remarked (YL 139.12b/vol. 8, p. 3309): "Since the literary writing of the Three Su's appeared, students on the first day rush toward the artful." It should be
noted, however, that Chu's criticism of Su was occasionally tempered by praise for his literary talent; see, for example, YL 139.12b/vol. 8, p. 3309 and 130.19a/vol. 8, p. 3113. On Chu's
views of Su Shih see Goyama, "Shu Ki no Sogaku hihan, josetsu"; Chang Chien, Chu Hsi te wenhsüeh p'ip'ing yenchiu, pp. 812, 97100; Bol, ''Literati Learning," pp. 177183; Lynn,
"Chu Hsi as Literary Theorist," pp. 337341; and below, Part One, "Chu Hsi and the Transformation of the Confucian Tradition."
24
. YL 139.22a/vol. 8, p. 3319. Elsewhere (YL 11.6b/vol. 1, p. 182 [5.27]) Chu rather cynically observed: "Once [people] pass the examinations, they read for the sake of [learning to]
compose miscellaneous prose. As for the eminent among them, they read for the sake of [learning to] compose ancientstyle prose. In [both] these instances they're reading not for
themselves but for other reasons."
25
. YL 139. 10a/vol. 8, pp. 33063307.
26
. YL 139. 10a/vol. 8, p. 3307.
27
. YL 139.22b/vol. 8, p. 3320. For general discussions of Chu's literary theory and criticism see Chang Chien, Chu Hsi te wenhsüeh p'ip'ing yenchiu, and Lynn, "Chu Hsi as Literary
Theorist."

learning, we have to read for ourselves, so that the understanding we reach is personally meaningful. Nowadays, however, people read simply for the sake of the civil
service examinations" (5.27; cf. 7.68). Elsewhere, he put his criticism more sharply: "Today [students] covet wealth and office, not the Way and righteousness∙ They
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

want to become men of high position, not good men."29 In fact, Chu's sense here that his contemporaries found the examinations especially appealing is borne out by
recent historical research. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, competition in the civil service examinations seems to have increased dramatically; it is estimated,
for example, that two hundred thousand candidates took the prefectural examinations in the late twelfth century, though the chances of succeeding were a slim one out
of a hundred.30 And as the competition increased, so naturally did the candidates' efforts at preparing for the examinations.
28
. Chu was by no means the only Sung thinker to be critical of the effects of the examination system on learning∙ For instance, Ch'eng I earlier had expressed his displeasure with
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

those who in pursuit of examination success lost sight of true learning∙ See, for example, the comments in Chan, Reflections, p. 199, and idem, Source Book, p. 551 Yeh Shih (1150
1223), a philosophical opponent of the Ch'engChu school, was equally if not more disturbed by the effects that the examinations seemed to have on learning. In Shuihsin hsien
sheng wenchi 3.14a he wrote rather sharply:
A harmful corollary of using the examination to select governmental personnel is to convert all scholars to aspirants of governmental positions.∙A healthy society cannot come about
when people study not for the purpose of gaining wisdom and knowledge but for the purpose of becoming government officials.... Nowadays ... beginning with childhood, all of a
man's study is centered on one aim alone: to emerge successfully from the three days' examinations, and all he has in his mind is what success can bring to him in terms of power,
influence, and prestige∙
This translation is from Li, Essence of Chinese Civilization, p. 167; this passage is partially cited in Chaffee, Thorny Gates, p. 88. For a general discussion of literati reaction to the
examinations see Nivison, "Protest against Conventions∙"
29
. Wenchi 74.25a
30
. See Chaffee, "Education and Examinations," pp. 5561, and idem, Thorny Gates, pp. 3541.

Literati, then, at least as Chu Hsi saw them, were engaged in an almost singleminded pursuit of success in the examinations. This pursuit tended to aggravate the flaws
in learning already mentioned—the striving for profundity and the quest for literary reputation. In preparing for the examinations, students cared little about
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

apprehending the true meaning of the Confucian Classics; rather, in order to attract the attention of the examiners, they strained to discover "novel and unusual"
interpretations of them.31 And even more important to them than the canon of sacred texts itself was the examinationstyle essay, the form in which they were
supposed to write their answers. Chu complained, perhaps with some exaggeration, that students spent more time learning to master it, in order to impress the
examiners—the arbiters of style— than they did studying the sage words in the Classics (6.31; cf. 7.55). This sort of "examination learning" was precisely what Chu
meant by "learning for the sake of others," and it certainly was a far cry from the "learning for one's own sake" advocated by Confucius.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

This is not to say, however, that Chu Hsi condemned the examinations as a method of official recruitment. He regarded them, in fact, as a reasonable means of
bringing talented and moral men into government service and acknowledged that students could legitimately devote some of their attention to studying for them. He
even wrote an essay that, although criticizing contemporary examination standards and practices, also proposed, as a way of strengthening the examination system, an
ideal curriculum for examinees.32 To Chu's mind the real problem was simply that stu
31
. YL (Chunghua shuchü edition), vol. 7, PP. 26932694. (From chüan 109, which is missing from the Ch'uan ching t'ang edition available to me.) This passage is cited in Chang
Liwen, Chu Hsi ssuhsiang yenchiu, p. 638. Cf. YL 10.14a/vol. 1, p. 175 (4.53) and 11.15a/vol. 1, p. 191 (5.48).
copyright law.

32
. "Hsüehhsiao kungchü ssui" in Wenchi 69.20a28b. The curriculum that Chu proposed in this essay contained a wide range of texts, including not only the Classics but also
commentaries on them by a variety of scholars representing different schools of interpretation, historical writings such as the Tzuchih t'ungchien by Ssuma Kuang (10191086), and
the philosophical works of the Taoists and Legalists. For a brief summary of this essay and a description of the contents of Chu's proposed curriculum, see de Bary, Liberal Tradition,
pp. 4042, and Nivison, "Protest against Conventions," pp. 189190.

Scholars must first distinguish between the examinations and studying—which is less important, which is more important. If 70 percent of their determination is given to study and
30 percent to the examinations, that'll be fine. But if 70 percent is given to the examinations and 30 percent to study, they're sure to be overcome by the 70 percent—how much
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

more if their determination is completely given to the examinations! (7.54)

Chu saw no reason, then, why students could not engage in true learning and examination preparation at the same time. One did not preclude the other. In fact, on
occasion Chu Hsi suggested that when done in the proper spirit true learning and examination preparation were one and the same:
It isn't that the examinations are a trouble to men, it's that men become troubled by the examinations. A scholar of superior understanding reads the texts of the sages and worthies
and on the basis of his understanding of them writes the essays required in the examinations. He places aside considerations of success and failure, gain and loss, so even if he
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

were to compete in the examinations every day he wouldn't be troubled by them. If Confucius were born again in today's world, he wouldn't avoid competing in the examinations,
and yet they wouldn't trouble him in the least. (7.64)

Unforunately, what commonly seemed to happen, in Chu's view, was that students lost the will to pursue true learning as they got caught up in the pursuit of
examination success. It was this will that had to be preserved in the face of preparing for the examinations:
Someone asked whether preparing for the examinations interferes with one's efforts at true learning. Chu said: Master Ch'eng has said that one shouldn't fear that it will interfere
with one's efforts at true learning but only that it will rob one of one's will to learn. If one spends ten days of every month preparing for the exams, one still has twenty days to
cultivate true learning. But if one's will to learn is shaken by the preparation for the exams, then indeed there's no cure.34 (7.61; cf. 7.65 and 7.63)

33
. This point has been made by Chaffee, "Revival of the White Deer Grotto Academy," p. 15.
34
. Ch'eng I's comment can be found in Ch'eng Hao's and his Honan Ch'engshih waishu 11.5a; it is translated in Chan, Reflections, p. 199.

In the end, then, Chu was not advising students not to participate in the examinations; never did he discourage students from taking the examinations or doing the
necessary preparation for them. He was simply warning them not to neglect true learning as they worked toward the examinations.35

Chu Hsi placed at least some of the responsibility for the "examination mentality" of Sung students on the governmentsponsored local schools. The spread of
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

government schools in prefectures and counties had begun in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, picked up momentum in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

continued apace through the Southern Sung period.36 Taking as their mission the training of future officials, local schools generally offered a curriculum designed to
prepare students to pass the civil service examinations.37 And thus they only added to the great pressure most students no doubt already felt to concentrate their efforts
on examination learning. To Chu this state of affairs was especially reprehensible. It was the job of schools to teach the true Confucian Way, not the way to succeed in
the examinations; moreover, by focusing on examination learning, schools engendered an unhealthy competitiveness. Discouraged by the sort of education he found in
these local government schools,38 Chu Hsi would give a great deal of his thought and time to education in private academies.39

Most students of the Sung, then, were not engaged in true learning. And Chu was concerned that, in the end, the few who were
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

35
. Chu on occasion poked fun at those around him who made much of their decision not to participate in the exams: "Not sitting for the examinations is a small matter. But these
days when people say they aren't going to sit for the examinations, they regard it as some fantastic achievement" (YL 13.23ab/vol. 1, p. 245 [7.60]; cf. YL 13.24a/vol. 1, p. 246
[7.63]).
36
. For a discussion of state schools in the Sung, see Chaffee, Thorny Gates, pp. 7388.
37
. Under the Three Hall System (sanshe fa), implemented at the turn of the twelfth century, schools had the dual responsibility of educating students and selecting chinshih from
among them. When the Three Hall System was abolished in 1121, the schools no longer had a formal connection with the civil service system, but they continued to serve as centers
for examination preparation. See Chaffee, Thorny Gates, pp. 7788; see also Lee, Government Education, pp. 107112.
38
. for a good example, Wenchi 79.23ab; Bol, "Literati Learning," pp. 812, discusses Chu's views of schools.
39.
erada, Sodai kyoikushi gaisetsu, pp. 269271, and below, Part One, "Restoring the Way: Chu Hsi's Educational Activities."

might not be prepared to make the effort necessary to master the Way. The Buddhists, to his mind, had created an atmosphere in which almost all students of the day
had come to believe that learning was easier than it actually was, that there were timesaving shortcuts to true understanding. Even Confucians had come to find the
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

"laborsaving" methods of Buddhist learning appealing; in fact, according to Chu, it was precisely because the learning process in Buddhism was so much less arduous
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

that Buddhism had become so popular.40 Chu ridiculed the Buddhists' naive approach to learning, making clear to his students how ineffectual and misguided he
thought it was: "In their method, before anything else, they place a large ban on reading books and probing principle. They forever want their students to fix their minds
on some unclear, unknown place and one day, by chance, suddenly to become enlightened."41 Chu believed there simply were no shortcuts to true understanding.
Rather, learning was a long, rigorous process, which, if done in the proper spirit, following the proper sequence, might in time result in a total understanding of the one
true principle underlying the universe. He pleaded with students not to be hasty, not to expect understanding to come without effort: "In studying the teachings of the
Sage, there's an orderly sequence to be followed. You shouldn't look for enlightenment at the very beginning."42 Chu was trying to counter the expectations he feared
Buddhist teachings had created in men of the Sung.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Finally, as he surveyed the landscape of late twelfthcentury learning, Chu Hsi became troubled by what he perceived to be the insidious effects of the printing
revolution on learning. Printing with woodblocks had been invented sometime before or during the eighth century by the Buddhists; in the tenth century the government
had used the technique to produce standard, orthodox editions of the Confucian canon. During the early Sung, the revolution in printing gained momentum, until by the
twelfth century printing technology had spread throughout the country: the government, temples, county and prefectural schools, and largescale commercial printers
and publishers were all printing books in their own shops. The printed book was now available just about every
40.
YL 126.29b/vol. 8, p. 3036; cf. 126.30a/vol. 8, p. 3036.
41
. Wenchi 60.5b; cf. Wenchi 46.3b and YL 14.11b/vol. 1, p. 260.
42
. Wenchi 53.2b.

Printing on such a scale no doubt made books far more economical and thus accessible to a larger number of people; and it may well have abetted a rise in literacy.
Chu, however, seemed to be at least as worried as he was pleased about the consequences of this printing revolution. Books, ironically, had become almost too
readily available. Students no longer had to commit texts to memory since they now had easy access to them. Their reading, thus, had become far less disciplined and
penetrating. Chu commented: "Because nowadays the number of printed texts is large, people don't put their minds to reading them. As for the Confucians of the Han
period [206 B.C.A.D.). 220], in instructing one another in the Classics, they just recited them from memory. Hence, they remembered them well" (4.42). Chu often
compared reading by contemporary students with that of their less technologically advanced predecessors:
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

The reason people today read sloppily is that there are a great many printed texts.... It would seem that the ancients had no written texts, so only if they had memorized a work from
beginning to end would they get it. Those studying a text would memorize it completely and afterward receive instruction on it from a teacher.... For people today even copying
down a text has become bothersome. Therefore, their reading is sloppy. (4.43)

Because of the availability of the printed book, people had become lazy; they had stopped reading as they should. Perhaps such laziness derived from more than just
the convenience the availability of books afforded them; it may be that confronted with all the books now circulating people felt overwhelmed and simply gave up—the
burden of culture had grown too great. In any case, Chu was deeply dismayed by the sloppy reading habits of his contemporaries and expressed the hope that they
would learn to approach the great texts in the cultural tradition in the same conscientious manner as had the ancients.
43
. This brief summary is based upon Twitchett, Printing and Publishing; Carter, Invention of Printing, pp. 2381; and Goodrich, "Development of Printing."
law.

44
. Ch'en Jungchieh, Chuhsüeh lunchi, pp. 220222, and Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," p. 412.

Restoring the Way: Chu Hsi's Educational Activities
without permission from the publisher, except fair uses
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form

In Chu Hsi's eyes, then, the Way was in decline, and customs had degenerated. The learning of the day not only had not helped solve the problems confronting society
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

but had itself become a problem. And yet, discouraged as he was about the state of learning he found around him, Chu never lost faith that it was through education
that the Way ultimately would be revived and customs reformed.

This faith in the reformative powers of education rested on a rather comprehensive understanding of what education entailed. For Chu education meant not just formal
schooling or book learning but also the transmission and absorption of cultural values, customs, and modes of proper behavior. Correct learning, then, could make the
individual student morally perfect, but beyond that it could transform the society as a whole, making it less vulnerable to outside attack, either from "barbarian" peoples
or "heterodox" religions. To have this effect, education—in this broad conception—had to be available to all social statuses, and although Chu Hsi's main interest may
have been with the education of the relatively small group of his philosophical followers, he by no means ignored the education of other members of society. Education,
in Chu's hands, took different forms to suit what he believed to be the needs and concerns of different audiences in a variety of different social and intellectual contexts.

One of his most influential educational efforts was the compilation of the Family Rituals (Chiali), a work apparently intended to

the Chengho Period (Chengho wuli hsini), outlined in considerable detail what family members were to do in family ceremonies; a chapter was devoted to each
of the four family rituals—coming of age, weddings, funerals, and sacrifices. This work, then, was a prescriptive one telling people how to behave, not a philosophical
one explaining why people were to behave in a certain way.2

The Family Rituals was thus not related to what we would consider formal education; it was not taught in schools or academies. But as a manual that provided
instruction to the people in familial matters, its function was indeed educational. Likewise, Chu Hsi's "community compact" (hsiangyüeh) was not a work taught in the
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

schools; it too was more a "howto" manual of instruction, offering guidelines for how people were to behave in their interactions with others in the community. Based
on the earlier compact of Lü Tachün (10311082), Chu's compact called for people to enter voluntarily into a contract with other members of their local community,
agreeing to the following general terms: (1) to encourage one another to behave virtuously and perform worthy acts; (2) to correct one another's faults; (3) to associate
with one another according to the proper rites and customs; and (4) to aid one another in times of misfortune and difficulty.3 Under each of these four major provisions
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Chu Hsi presented a detailed list of the deeds and rituals members of the compact were expected to perform, The specificity of these deeds and rituals can be striking.
For instance:
If you are riding on horseback and a venerated or senior person is on foot, as soon as he comes into view, dismount and make a low bow before him.

1
. The authorship and the audience of this text have been open to question. Patricia Ebrey, basing her work on recent Chinese and Japanese scholarship, accepts attribution to
Chu Hsi; she also concludes that the contents were intended to be applicable to the entire populace. For a lengthy discussion, with partial translation, of the Family Rituals, see
Ebrey, "Education through Ritual."
2
. This summary is based on Ebrey's "Education through Ritual." Ebrey (pp. 296297) concludes that of all Chu's writings the Family Rituals "may be the one most often consulted by
people of little formal education."
3
. Wenchi 74.25a.

If he has already given way to you, you still salute him in the same way, and only after he has passed a considerable distance beyond you do you remount the horse. If the
venerated or senior person orders you to remount the horse, you steadfastly refuse. If you meet a peer and you are both on horseback, riding on opposite sides of the road bow to
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses

each other and pass. If he is on foot and gives way to you before you reach him, dismount and make a low bow to him. When he has passed by, remount the horse. If you meet a
junior4 or someone still younger and you are both on horseback, should he give way to you before you reach him, make a low bow and pass. If he is on foot and gives way to you
before you reach him, dismount and make a low bow. (With a young person you need not dismount.)5

In the Chinese context, of course, the performance of the sorts of ritual acts detailed here did more than bring order to the community; it was thought to breed in the
individual an inner correctness. That is, by acting as one should, in accord with the rules of etiquette appropriate to one's station in life, one was cultivating one's own
morality.

If a person failed to perform the deeds and rituals outlined in the compact, even after being reprimanded, he faced expulsion from the compact.6 The compact thus
served for its members as a kind of constitution, an elaborate set of prescriptions for proper conduct in the local community.7 The community compact envisioned by
Chu was not widely adopted during his lifetime, but in later dynasties as well as in other countries of East Asia its influence would be considerable.

Chu's efforts to instruct people outside the formal classroom setting took other forms as well. He had libraries built8 and shrines and monuments erected that
commemorated distinguished personages, including the great NeoConfucian masters of the Northern Sung.9 Such shrines, he hoped, by honoring those men who in
their
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

4
. I.e., a person no more than ten years younger than oneself.
5
. Wenchi 74.28a; this translation is based on Übelhör, "Mr. Lü's Community Pact," pp. 1112.
6
. Wenchi 74.26b.
7
. On the community compact see Übelhör, "Community Compact," and Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, pp. 132134.
8
. E.g., Wang Mouhung, Chutzu nienp'u (hereafter Nienp'u), pp. 1011; cf. Wenchi 75. 1ab.
9
. E.g., Nienp'u, pp. 12, 78, 194; cf. Wenchi 20. 1ab, 77.3ab, 86.4b6b,

(Footnote continued on next page)

lifetimes had displayed exemplary moral qualities, would have the power to transmit those qualities to later generations. For Chu the shrine was a natural extension of
the traditional Confucian belief in the power of moral example, the belief that a good man, through an almost ''magical charisma," would transform those around him
into morally superior individuals.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

In addition, Chu, in his capacity as an official, issued more than one hundred public proclamations (pang),10 the purpose of which was to instruct both the educated
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

and uneducated populace under his jurisdiction not only in practical matters, such as the community granary, the community compact, drought and famine relief,
taxation, local defense, and the reclassification of land, but in matters of morality, rites, and customs as well. The proclamations exhorted people, for example, to
maintain good human relations, both inside and outside the family; to follow the proper decorum in daily life and in family ceremonies, particularly marriage and
mourning; to practice with devotion filial piety and brotherliness; to help improve the quality of local students and schools; and not to engage in certain religious or
superstitious practices, many of which were associated with Buddhism.11 To give the reader something of the flavor of these proclamations, I quote the following
excerpt from a proclamation Chu published in Nank'ang as he assumed the prefectural duties there in 1179:
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Now I entreat you, literati, commoners, and community elders under my jurisdiction, to gather together each season of the year and to give instruction to the people and on
occasion, when circumstances call for it, to offer repeated injunctions. In this way our youth will all know to practice filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty and faithfulness; within
the household to serve their parents and older brothers and outside of it to serve their elders and superiors; to be generous toward relatives and friendly toward neighbors; to
offer assistance to others in need and to aid them in times of

(Footnote continued from previous page)
78.22b, 19.46b47b. For a summary of Chu's shrinebuilding efforts see Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi as an Administrator," pp. 211, 216217Cf. also Chu's numerous accounts applauding
the construction of shrines and libraries in Wenchi, chüan 7780, passim.
10
. This figure was arrived at by RonGuey Chu, "Public Instruction," p. 255.
11
. See Wenchi, chüan 99100, for many of Chu's proclamations. RonGuey Chu's "Public Instruction" is a study and translation of Chu's proclamations relating to public morality and
ritual observances; Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi as an Administrator," pp. 218219, presents a summary of one important proclamation.

misfortune and difficulty. It may be hoped thereby that our customs, in their excellence, will not suffer in comparison to those of the ancients and that we will be able to assist the
sage Emperor in his wishes to enrich custom.12
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except

Chu's intention clearly was to use the public proclamations to nurture proper moral behavior among the people at large; they became a sort of "pulpit" for him, from
which he could lay down moral guidelines for those under his jurisdiction.

A considerable part of Chu's efforts to ensure that people of the day were properly educated was devoted to improving the conditions in the local government
schools. As the subprefectural registrar of T'ungan (11531156) and the prefect of Nank'ang (11791181) and Changchou (11901191), Chu Hsi took a deep
personal interest in the schools in his regions.13 As noted earlier, he found the students in those schools to be lazy and concerned primarily with success in the state
examinations, not with true Confucian learning. He sought to attract better students and admonished them to put aside ambitions of wealth and power and set their
sights instead on the true Way; he made a practice of visiting the schools to look over the students' work and hold discussions with them.14 Chu also invited
distinguished scholars to come lecture at the schools15 and himself taught there when his schedule allowed.16 He hoped thus to make the local schools in the areas
fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

under his supervision centers of serious Confucian study and to free them from their past preoccupation with examination learning. Chu's commitment to reinvigorating
local schools is evident from the proclamation issued in Nank'ang cited earlier:
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

In recent years the scholarly tradition [in this prefecture] has declined, with the school supporting a mere thirty students.... Now I entreat the village elders to select young men
who are dedicated to learning and send them to the school. They will be given assistance and be eligible to attend lectures and participate in classes. Meanwhile, the prefecture
will take various steps to provide more support for schooling. And the prefect himself, when official duties permit, will visit the school regularly and discuss

12
. Wenchi 99.2a.
13
. See Schirokauer, "Chu Hsi as an Administrator," pp. 208219.
14
. See Wenchi 74. 1b2a and Nienp'u, pp. 9, 171.
15
. E.g., Wenchi 20. 1a and Nienp'u, p. 9.
16
. Nienp'u, pp. 78, 171.

the meaning of the Classics with the school officials and in a variety of ways guide and encourage them. It may be hoped thereby that in time talented people of outstanding
ability will appear and that we will be able to assist the sage Emperor in his wishes to develop men of talent.17
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher,

It is recorded that Chu, in fact, visited the Nank'ang commandery school every four or five days and engaged tirelessly in discussion with the students there.18

But Chu apparently was never fully satisfied with the education offered in the local schools.19 Even as he was attempting to improve the quality of the Nank'ang
commandery school, he began to search elsewhere for the sort of education he believed the people needed. In 1179, as he took up the post of prefect of Nank'ang,
he initiated the revival of an academy scenically situated on a mountain a few miles north of the commandery capital. Known as the White Deer Hollow, its history
could be traced back to the late eighth century, when it served as a residence for an official of the T'ang. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, under the Southern T'ang
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

(937975) and early Sung, it had flourished as an academy; Sung T'aitsung (r. 976997) had even presented it with a set of the Nine Classics. But by the early
Southern Sung the academy had fallen into ruins.

Chu revived the White Deer Hollow Academy not as a replacement for the government school but rather as a supplement to it. And to his mind the supplement was
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

necessary. Buddhist and Taoist temples were overrunning the countryside, he argued. There were more than one hundred on Lu Mountain alone, but only three
government schools were to be found in the entire prefecture.20 This sort of saturation, by the Buddhists in particular, posed a danger to Confucian learning;21 only if
schools and academies that transmitted the proper Way became a stronger presence in the area could heterodox teaching be kept at bay. For Chu Hsi, then,
17
. Wenchi 99.2ab; loosely based on RonGuey Chu, "Public Instruction," p. 261.
18
. Nienp'u, p. 78.
19
. For a scathing attack by Chu on this education see, for example, Wenchi 79.23ab; cited in Terada, Sodai kyoikushi gaisetsu, pp. 270271.
20
. Wenchi 16.19b, 20.9b; cf. Wenchi 13.21b. See also Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen, pp. 177199
21
. Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," p. 402, and Terada, Sodai kyoikushi gaisetsu, pp. 267268, touch on this point.

academies would help serve to offset the powerful influence Buddhism had at the time.

The White Deer Hollow was only one of the academies with which Chu was associated during his lifetime. Records show that he founded eight of them, taught or
lectured at another dozen, wrote accounts for three, and left plaques for at least nine.22 But he is best remembered for his work at the White Deer Hollow Academy.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses

In addition to restoring the buildings and finding the personnel, the revenues, and the books for it, Chu became actively involved in the instruction there; in fact, it was
there that he attracted a number of his loyal disciples.23 What in particular has tied Chu's reputation to the White Deer Hollow Academy is the set of articles of
instruction he formulated for it in 1180. From that time on these articles served as a model for academies not only in China but throughout East Asia.24 Though they
have been cited often,25 it is worth quoting them again here, in their entirety:

Affection between parent and child;
Righteousness between ruler and subject;
Differentiation between husband and wife;
Precedence between elder and younger;
Trust between friends.26

The above are the items of the Five Teachings. When Yao and Shun appointed Hsieh to be Minister of Education and to set forth reverently the Five Teachings,27 it was precisely
these teachings. Students should study these and nothing more. In studying, there is a proper sequence, which likewise involves five items, listed separately below:

Study extensively, inquire carefully, ponder thoroughly, sift clearly, and practice earnestly.28
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

22
. These figures are from Chaffee, "Revival of the White Deer Grotto Academy," p. 49, and Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," p. 411.
23
. Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," p. 396, and Chaffee, "Chu Hsi in NanK'ang," pp. 424427.
24
. For a brief discussion of the articles' influence see Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," pp. 398399.
25
. For example, Meskill, Academies in Ming China, pp. 5051; Chaffee, "Revival of the White Deer Grotto Academy," pp. 1315; de Bary, Liberal Tradition, pp. 3536; Chan, "Chu Hsi
and the Academies," p. 397; and Terada, Sodai kyoikushi gaisetsu, pp. 297298.
26
. From Mengtzu 3A/4.
27
. See Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. 3, P. 44.
28
. Chungyung 20/19.

The above is the proper sequence for studying. Studying, inquiring, pondering, and sifting are the means by which to probe principle. As to earnest practice, its essence is
present in every step from selfcultivation on down to handling affairs and dealing with others, as follows:
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

Be loyal and true to your every word, serious and careful in all you do.29

Curb your anger and restrain your lust; move toward the good and correct your errors.30

The above are the essentials of selfcultivation.

Accord with the righteous, do not seek profit; illuminate the Way, do not calculate the advantages.31

The above are the essentials for handling affairs.

Do not do to others what you do not want done to you.32

Whenever you fail to achieve your purpose, look into yourself.33

The above are the essentials for dealing with others.34

"The Articles of the White Deer Hollow Academy," then, is not a detailed set of instructions prescribing how students were to conduct themselves from hour to hour at
the academy. Rather, it is a general outline, setting forth first the content of learning, then the method of learning, next the aim of learning (i.e., selfcultivation), and
finally the effects that proper learning would have on a student's dealings with others.35 The articles are in essence nothing but a simple restatement of traditional
Confucian values and social mores, which take the five human relationships as central. Indeed, with the exception of one remark by Tung Chungshu (176104 B.C.)
from the Han History (Han shu), the articles are all simply quotations from the Confucian Classics. But Chu must have felt
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

29
. Lunyü 15/6; translation from Waley, Analects, p. 194.
30
. From Chou i, pp. 2526.
31
. Statement of Tung Chungshu (176104 B.C.), found in Han shu, vol, 8, 56.2524.
32
applicable copyright law.

. Lunyü 12/2, 15/24
33
. Mengtzu 4A/4; adapted from Lau, Mencius, p. 119.
34
. Wenchi 74. 18ab; the translation here is loosely based on de Bary, Liberal Tradition, pp. 3536.
35
. Because the articles are so general, Chart believes that they probably were not influenced by the far more complex and detailed monastic regulations, such as the Paichang ch'ing
kuei, as other scholars have asserted. See Chan, "Chu Hsi and the Academies," p. 399.

that such values and social mores needed to be restated. In an essay he attached to the articles, he highlighted the necessity of returning to traditional Confucian
learning:
I have observed that the sages and worthies of antiquity in teaching people to pursue learning had one intention only: to have them understand moral principle clearly inorder
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

that they might cultivate their persons, thereafter extending [their perfection] to others. The sages and worthies did not simply want people to engage in the memorization of texts
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

and the composition of verse and essays for the purpose of winning a reputation and obtaining wealth and office. Those who today pursue learning go against [the wishes of the
sages and worthies]. The methods used by the sages and worthies in their teaching are all to be found in the Classics. Dedicated literati really ought to read through them
thoroughly, ponder them deeply, and then sift them with an inquiring mind.36

With the academy, then, Chu hoped he was creating a setting where students could engage not in a "vocational" preparation for examinations but in disinterested
study.37 The academy was to lead students back to the true message of the sages and worthies found in the Confucian canon. An important point to note here is the
responsibility Chu placed on students at the academy to think about the Classics for themselves; this is a point he would reiterate over and over in conversations with
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

his disciples. The "Articles of the White Deer Hollow Academy" thus represent an attempt by Chu Hsi to articulate in the face of the examinationoriented education of
the time a general philosophy of Confucian education that called for the return to disinterested study of the tradition's fundamental values and texts.38

Chu Hsi's missionary zeal in educating the people of his day and ensuring the transmission of the Confucian Way perhaps finds its clearest testimonial in his prodigious
scholarship and his lifelong commitment to the teaching of disciples. Chu wrote, compiled, and edited books throughout his entire adult life. His purpose was
36
. Wenchi 74. 18b19a.
37
. Chaffee too makes this point in "Revival of the White Deer Grotto Academy," p. 56.
38
. The number of academies that had sprung up by the late twelfth century suggests that they had a strong appeal; the competition in the examinations, which by that time was
extraordinarily keen, had probably done much to alienate literati and turn them more toward the life of the mind and moral cultivation found in the academies. See Chaffee, Thorny
Gates, pp. 8991, particularly table 13, p. 89.

always the same: to highlight the Way and make it accessible to others. He wrote commentaries on all but one of the Five Classics, on each of the Four Books,40 and
39

on the Book of Filial Piety (Hsiao ching).41 For it was in these texts from the Confucian canon in particular that the Way could be found; after all, they had been
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses

written by the great sages of antiquity, men who themselves fully embodied the Way. Thus the message conveyed in them was certain to embody the Way as well.
That message, however, given its subtlety and profundity, was difficult for most people to apprehend. Chu intended for his commentaries to make that task somewhat
easier.

History too conveyed the Way, documenting as it did the Way in operation. Hence, Chu produced a number of historical works— one on famous statesmen of the
Northern Sung, one on the development of the Ch'eng brothers school of NeoConfucianism, and one a sort of summary of Ssuma Kuang's monumental
Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government ( Tzuchih t'ungchien)42—the purpose of which was not primarily to narrate historical events but rather to pass
moral judgment on those historical events and personages and thus clarify for readers what the Way looked like in practice.

In addition to these scholarly writings on the Classics and history, Chu devoted much time to editing and commenting on the words of the great NeoConfucian
masters of the Northern Sung; he prepared editions of the Ch'eng brothers' and Hsieh Liangtso's conversations43 and commentaries on Chang Tsai's Western
Inscription (Hsiming)44 and Chou Tuni's Diagram of the Great Ultimate Explained (T'aichi t'ushuo).45 Like the authors of the Classics these
39
. For example, for the I ching he wrote the Choui peni and the Ihsüeh ch'imeng; for the Shih ching, the Shih chichuan; for the Shu ching, the Shu chichuan, which was
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

completed by his disciple Ts'ai ch'en (11671230) (see Ch'ang Pite et al., Sungjen chuanchi tzuliao sojin [hereafter SJCC], vol. 5, P. 3783, and Ch'en Jungchieh, Chutzu men
jen, pp. 333334); and for the Li, the Ili chingchuan t'ungchieh. For handy lists of Chu's writings see Chang Liwen, Chu Hsi ssuhsiang yenchiu, pp. 8287, and Chou Tat'ung,
Chu Hsi, pp. 93113.
40
. The most famous and influential are the Lunyü chichu, the Mengtzu chichu, the Tahsüeh changchü, and the Chungyung changchü.
41
. Hsiaoching k'anwu.
42
. Respectively, these are the Mingch'en yenhsing lu, the Ilo yüanyüan lu, and the Tzuchih t'ungchien kangmu
43
. Honan Ch'engshih ishu, Honan Ch'engshih waishu, and Hsieh Shangts'ai hsiensheng yülu.
44
. Hsiming chiehi.
45
. T'aichi t'ushuo chieh and T'ungshu chieh.

men of the Northern Sung, Chu believed, were sages and worthies who in their lifetimes had embraced the Way and whose words too therefore embraced the Way.
They needed to be heard, for they could help make the Way clearer to the people of Chu's time. So important were these words that with the help of his trusted friend
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

Lü Tsuch'ien, Chu compiled an anthology of them; in this anthology, Reflections on Things at Hand, he selected 622 comments by the four men of the Northern
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Sung he most admired—Chou Tuni, the Ch'eng brothers, and Chang Tsai—as a way of making their ideas, scattered in voluminous writings and conversations, as
accessible to people as possible. The conviction that their words truly conveyed the Way but that they needed to be pared down and anthologized to become
accessible and meaningful to others was clearly what inspired Chu to produce the work. In the preface to it he wrote:
Together [Lü and I] read the works of Masters Chou Tuni, Ch'eng Hao, Ch'eng I, and Chang Tsai and lamented over the fact that their doctrines are as extensive and broad as a
sea without shores. Fearing that a beginner may not know where to start, we have selected passages concerned with fundamentals and closely related to daily application to
constitute this volume, making a total of 622 items divided into fourteen chapters. ... Thus if a young man in an isolated village who has the will to learn, but no enlightened teacher
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

or good friend to guide him, obtains this volume and explores and broods over its material in his own mind, he will be able to find the gate to enter.46

The pedagogic concern expressed in this preface was one that lay behind all of Chu's scholarly work: to make the great Way manageable for others so that it might be
preserved and passed on to later generations∙

Chu Hsi's teaching of disciples would seem to have been at least as important to him as his scholarship. Even when writing, he never gave up teaching. Chu first
attracted those who took him as aster during his early years in T'ungan (11531156); by the time f his death a half century later he number of his followers had
reached nearly five hundred.47 The Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically is the record, in 140 chapters, of conversations
46
. Wenchi 81.6b7a; translation from Chan, Reflections, pp. 12.
47
. Ch'en Jungchieh, Chutzu menjen, pp. 127.

that took place over the years between Chu Hsi and his disciples. It constitutes a detailed chronicle of the master's pedagogic concerns and style. Also, preserved in
the Collected Literary Works of Master Chu are a great many letters Chu Hsi sent to disciples during his lifetime. Chu's commitment to passing the Way on to others
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

is nowhere better evidenced than in these two collections. It is in them that we find Chu as teacher and transmitter, instructing those of his age what in the Chinese
cultural tradition was most precious and why. And it is in them that we come to feel the deep sense of mission this late twelfthcentury intellectual had in reviving a Way
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

he was convinced had become endangered.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

applicable copyright law.

Chu Hsi's Program of Learning for Followers of the Way
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Chu Hsi knew what he wished to accomplish as a teacher: to make the Confucian message, first articulated by the sages of the past, accessible to students of the
present. For Chu this meant deciding which texts from China's long and rich cultural tradition would constitute, the best curriculum for these students, which texts
would most effectively and clearly transmit the Confucian message to them. Based on his experience as both student and teacher, he was convinced that certain texts
more readily and more lucidly yielded up the Confucian truth than others. He would have students turn to these writings first. Indeed, one of Chu Hsi's great
achievements as an educator was to develop a graded, rather precise curriculum designed to introduce students to the Confucian message.

But having observed what he perceived to be the dismal state of learning around him, Chu Hsi was equally convinced that texts— no matter how full of wisdom or
inspiration—meant little or nothing if those coming to them did not possess the proper attitude. And so, in teaching others, he did more than establish a rigorous
curriculum; he developed and lay before them a highly elaborate method of reading, which he hoped would enable them to absorb the message embodied in his
curriculum. If he could induce students to approach the texts and their reading of them in the right way—a way he neatly outlined for them—the Confucian Way might
be preserved. In the Collected Literary Works of Master Chu and the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically we find a devoted

teacher preoccupied with the question of how man learns most effectively and with the related question of what enables him to learn. Chu Hsi, in teaching students,
was as interested in epistemology and what we might call the psychology of learning as he was in the content of learning.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Chu's pedagogic outlook placed an enormous burden on his students, for he expected them to be ready to give their lives, just as he was, to preserving the Way. They
were to be the educated and moral elite, the vanguard of his program to revive the great Confucian tradition. To Chu his students were a corps of true learners who,
once they had themselves heard and embraced the word of the sages, would go and spread it throughout the rest of the world. Chu's goal of resuscitating and
transmitting the Way thus depended quite heavily on them.

Those who studied under Chu Hsi, then, assumed something of the role of religious novitiates; for them Chu would provide guidance—through his choice of texts to be
read, his discussion of them, and the disciplined methodology of learning he developed— in the apprehension of the truth embedded in the canonical tradition. It is
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

clear from conversations with his disciples that Chu did not anticipate that they would necessarily translate the understanding they reached in their study with him into
formal public service as officials, as traditional Confucian teachings might have demanded. That is to say, Chu's program of learning was not designed primarily to yield
the archetypal Confucian official.1 It was designed rather to lead those who followed him to a deep and personally meaningful understanding of the Confucian truth,
which had been largely obscured for more than fifteen hundred years, since the death of Mencius.2 Chu trusted that if his cohort of disciples embraced and practiced
this truth for themselves it might once
1
. In ''Hsüehhsiao kungchü ssui" (Wenchi 69.20a28b), Chu Hsi discussed the sort of learning that would be appropriate for those preparing for the examinations and
government service; on this learning see de Bary, Liberal Tradition, pp. 4042, and Nivison, "Protest against Conventions," pp. 189—190. But the program of learning that
interested Chu far more, and that is presented throughout his writings and conversations, is one for devout Confucians hoping to embrace the Way and tread the true path—the
sorts of Confucians who studied for moral and spiritual cultivation, not for examination or worldly success.
2
. On the tradition since Mencius's death see the preface to Tahsüeh changchü 2ab.

again prevail in the world: through their teaching of others, their writing, their exemplary lives, and if they so chose, their official service, these disciples might well pass
the Way on to later generations, ensuring its survival into the future.

in setting up a curriculum for his followers, Chu Hsi, not surprisingly, made the Confucian Classics the core texts. Chu believed that the Classics had been written by
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

the great sages of antiquity and hence fully embodied the truth, or, in NeoConfucian terms, li (conventionally translated "principle")3 (5.44 and 3.17).4 Even though
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

earlier scholars had also believed that the sages of the past had set down the truth in the Confucian canon, an important and essential difference between Chu Hsi and
these scholars was in the sorts of truths they hoped to discover in the texts. PreSung classicists had tended to look for limited, "situational truths," that is, prescriptions
detailing how to behave in life's varying circumstances and how to govern the people most effectively; this is why they turned to the Five Classics. But in seeking li,
Chu was looking for a truth more abstract and more universal; he was looking for the "principle" that underlay all things in the cosmos. Hence he chose to focus more
on the Four Books. Thus, although the body of Confucian canonical texts remained largely the same from preSung to Sung times, the approach to it and the message
to be found in it changed markedly in Chu Hsi's hands.5
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Of course, Chu was not suggesting that it was only in the Confucian Classics that truth or principle could be apprehended; it did after all inhere in all things and affairs
in the universe. But the Classics, written as they were by the great sages of antiquity, manifested it more clearly than anywhere else. As Chu once remarked: "All things
in the world have principle, but its essence is embodied in the works of the sages and worthies. Hence, in seeking principle we must turn to these works."6 For those
wishing to tread the true Way, there was simply no better guide than these texts:
3
. For a discussion of li and its translation see the annotation that follows passage 1.4 and below, Part One, "Chu Hsi's Program of Learning for Followers of the Way."
4
. See also YL 10.1aff./vol. 1, pp. 161ff. and 11.11b/vol. 1, p. 187 and Wenchi 14.12ab and 42.22b23a.
5
. I have made this point in Chu Hsi and the Tahsueh, pp. 4849.
6
. Wenchi 59.5a.

The sages wrote the Classics to teach later generations. These texts enable the reader to reflect on the ideas of the sages while reciting their words and hence to understand what
is in accordance with the principle of things. Understanding the whole substance of the proper Way, he will practice the Way with all his strength, and so enter the realm of the
sages and worthies. Although the texts are concise, they treat all matters under heaven, the hidden and the manifest, the great and the small. If he who wishes to seek the Way
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright

and thereby enter into virtue abandons the Classics, he will have nothing to which to apply himself.7

Needless to say, reading the canon was important to Chu Hsi, then, not principally as an intellectual exercise but rather as the intellectual means to a moral, even a
spiritual, end: through the classical texts the sensitive reader could apprehend the principle underlying the universe and hence "practice the Way with all his strength,
and so enter the realm of the sages and worthies." Indeed, contrary to the reputation for bookishhess that he gained in the Ming (13681644), Chu was determined
that reading not become excessively scholastic, devoid of moral and spiritual significance. When he announced to his disciples that "book learning is a secondary
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

matter for students" (4.1), he was warning them that reading must never be an end in itself but merely a way to come to know principle and thus follow the true Way.8

In fact, once principle was apprehended, Chu believed that even the Confucian Classics and their commentaries could be abandoned. At times he sounded startlingly
like Lu Chiuyüan: "When we read the Six Classics, it should be just as if there were no Six Classics. We are simply seeking the moral principle in ourselves" (5.41).
Or: "We rely on the Classics simply to understand principle. Once we have grasped principle, there is no need for the Classics" (5.52; cf. 4.2, 4.3, and 5.26).9 In
other words, reading the Classics was of no consequence to Chu Hsi if it did not provide moral and spiritual advancement for the reader.
7
. Wenchi 82.26a.
8
. In YL 10.6a/vol. 1, p. 167 (4.29), Chu comments: "Reading is one way of apprehending the principle in things." See also passages in YL 10.1a/vol. 1, p. 161. Ch'eng I had held the same
point of view; see, for example, Chan, Reflections, pp. 4748.
law.

9
. Lu Chiuyüan once remarked (Hsiangshan hsiensheng ch'üanchi 34.1b): "If in our learning we understand what's fundamental, the Six Classics all are but footnotes to us."

Chu was aware, however, that reading the Confucian canon and apprehending its message were not necessarily easy matters. The texts were old and hence difficult to
understand, particularly for beginners:
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher,

So great an expanse of time separates us from the sages that their discourses on the texts have become lost to us, and even our venerable teachers and scholars cannot fully
understand the symbols and numbers, the designations and descriptions of things, the commentary, and the directions to the reader found in the Classics. How much less are the
young novices, who hurriedly read through the texts, able to appreciate their general concerns and essential points.10

To make the classical texts less formidable, less incomprehensible, Chu, continuing the efforts of his predecessors the Ch'eng brothers, developed a graded
curriculum.11 At the very top of this curriculum he placed the Greater Learning, the Analects, the Book of Mencius, and the Doctrine of the Mean. To Chu's mind
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

the "ease, immediacy, and brevity" of these works gave them an accessibility that other texts in the canon lacked.12 As he wrote to an acquaintance: "If we wish
principle to be simple and easy to appreciate, concise and easy to grasp, there is nothing better than the Greater Learning, the Analects, the Book of Mencius, and
the Doctrine of the Mean."13 Only after fully mastering these four texts—referred to commonly since the Yüan period (12791368) as the Four Books—were
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

students supposed to turn to the previously authoritative Five Classics, the Book of Changes, the Book of Poetry, the Book of History, the Book of Rites, and the
Spring and Autumn Annals.14 Thus, with Chu Hsi, the Four Books came to displace the Five Classics as the central texts in the Confucian tradition. As such they
now constituted the core teachings in the Confucian school; they would continue to do so until well into the present century.
10
. Wenchi 82.26a.
11
. On the Ch'engs' curricular suggestions see Gardner, "Principle and Pedagogy," pp. 6569.
12
. Wenchi 82.26a.
13
. Wenchi 59.5a. So certain was he of their effectiveness that in 1190 Chu published them together as a collection, giving it the title Ssutzu, the Four Masters. This was the first time
these four texts, known commonly since the Yüan as the Ssushu, the Four Books, circulated together.
14
. See, for instance, Wenchi 82.26a.

The histories too were to be studied, according to Chu, but only after the canonical texts had been completely comprehended. It was simply that principle was not
nearly so accessible in the histories. The Classics, in particular the Four Books, clearly revealed principle; the histories were much more discursive, recording examples
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright

of how principle had actually operated in the past (5.42, 5.44, 5.65, and 5.66).15 For Chu genuine understanding of principle meant understanding it in actual practice,
and thus a reading of the histories was essential. But he cautioned his students against reading them prematurely: "If you turn to the histories before thoroughly
mastering the Analects, the Book of Mencius, the Doctrine of the Mean, and the Greater Learning, your mind will have no measuringstick and thus will be
frequently misled."16 In a more elaborate comment:
People nowadays have yet to read much in the Classics or thoroughly understand moral principle before they begin reading historical texts, inquiring into the order and disorder of
the past and present and studying institutions and the laws. This can be compared to building a dike to irrigate the fields: a dike should be full of water before you open it, then
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

the water will rush out, nourishing all the crops in the field; if you hastily open the dike to irrigate the field just when the dike has accumulated little more than a ladleful of water,
not only will this be of no benefit to the field but you'll no longer have even the ladleful of water. Once you've read a lot in the Classics and you've thoroughly understood moral
principle, your mind will be completely clear as to the standard of measure; if you don't then turn to the historical texts, inquiring into the order and disorder of the past and
present and studying institutions and the laws, it's like having a dike full of water and not opening it to irrigate the field. If you've yet to read much in the Classics or thoroughly
understand moral principle but eagerly make reading the histories your first order of business, it's like opening a dike with a ladleful of water to irrigate the field. You can stand
there and watch [the water] dry up. (5.65)

The reader had to apprehend principle from the Classics first; only with an understanding of this principle would he have the standard of measure for evaluating the
events and persons of the past. Chu,
15
. See also Wenchi 77.22a.
law.

16
. YL 11.19a/vol. 1, p. 195; Ch'ien Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan, vol. 5, PP. 110—114, cites passages from YL and the Wenchi on the priority of the Classics over the histories.

to be sure then, would have students include in their program of learning such standard historical works as the Records of the Grand Historian, the Tso
Commentary (Tso chuan), the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, and the dynastic histories (5.66); he even ridiculed men—like Wang Anshih—for
their ignorance of historical works (5.44). But the role of these texts in the program was secondary to and clearly less important than that of the Confucian Classics
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses

(5.43).17

Chu was persuaded that this curriculum for students of the Way contained a coherent message. He remarked to them: "Everything you read is of the same
principle" (4.31; cf. 3.30). Each of the canonical texts and the important histories conveyed, more or less explicitly, the same Confucian truth; with work the reader
would see for himself the interrelatedness of the texts Chu proposed they read. Over and over again in his writings we find Chu trying to reconcile various passages
from the different texts, hoping to demonstrate to his students the essential unity of the Confucian message.18 For example:
The words of the sages and worthies for the most part seem dissimilar. Yet, they've always been interconnected. For example, the Master said: "Do not look, listen, speak, or move,
unless it be in accordance with the rites,"19 "when abroad behave as though you were receiving an important guest and when employing the services of the common people
behave as though you were officiating at an important sacrifice,"20 and "be loyal and true in your every word, serious and mentally attentive in all that you do."21 Mencius then
said: "Seek for the lost mind''22 and "preserve the mind and nourish the nature."23 The Greater Learning then treated what is called "the apprehension of the principle in things,
the extension of knowledge, setting the mind in the right, and making the thoughts true."24 Master Ch'eng then concentrated on elucidating the word ching. If you simply read all
this, it may seem like a hodgepodge, utterly confused. But
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

17
. According to Kasoff, Thought of Chang Tsai, pp. 8284, Chang Tsai would have learners read only the Classics and not bother with the histories at all.
18
. Cf. Kasoff, Thought of Chang Tsai, pp. 1719, where he talks about the Sung effort to "link concepts from different classical texts."
19
. Lunyü 12/1.
20
. Lunyü 12/2
21
. Lunyü 15/5.
22
. Mengtzu 6A/11.
23
. Mengtzu 7A/1.
24
. Tahsüeh, "Classic of Confucius," para. 4.

in fact it's all of the same principle. Taofu said: "Drifting around in the texts, I felt they were all different. It's only when I really applied myself that the principle running through
them all became apparent." Chu said: "That's right. Just concentrate your efforts on one spot; all the rest inheres in that spot. The Way of the sages and worthies is like a house.
Though there are different doors, you'll be able to enter it approaching it from just one direction. I fear only that you won't make the effort." (6.33; cf. 2.5)
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

The interrelatedness of the classical texts was an article of faith for Chu Hsi. Since these texts were all transmitted by the great sages—men who completely embodied
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

the one Confucian Way—what they transmitted naturally cohered.25

Chu Hsi's pedagogic concerns went beyond telling his students what to read; he was just as anxious that they be taught how to read as well. Indeed, Chu devoted
much of his life to developing a hermeneutics (or to use his own term, tushu fa), a comprehensive theory and method of reading and learning from what to him were
sacred texts. So critical was this art of reading for Chu Hsi that compilers of the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically gave over two entire chapters
to his comments on the subject.26 Chu wanted his students to know how to read most effectively, so that they might get at the true meaning of the cherished works of
the past, the great Way of the sages.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

At the heart of Chu Hsi's highly elaborate tushu fa was the conviction that in book learning the student had to do more than simply read through the texts—he had to
"experience them personally" (e.g., 4.20, 4.21, and 525); only if he made the texts his own would they be truly meaningful to him. Chu explained to his students:
"Generally speaking, in reading we must first become intimately familiar with the text so that its words seem to come from our own mouths. We should then continue to
reflect on it so that its ideas
25
. Chu, in the passage cited here, is not only reconciling the various texts in the canonical tradition but also the words of his great master, Ch'eng I, with those canonical texts (cf.
YL 9.4a/vol. 1, pp. 151152 [3.12]). Indeed, what made Ch'eng I and the other great NeoConfucians of the Northern Sung such heroes to Chu Hsi was that their words in the end
were one with those of the revered sages of antiquity: principle was readily apparent in all of them. In quality and kind there were no differences between the sacred texts of the
past and the words of the more recent sages of the early Sung.
26
. Chüan 10, 11

To experience the text as he should, there were certain guidelines the reader had to follow. First of all, Chu advised, the reader should delimit his curriculum. With the
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

proliferation of printing, books had become widely available; the Sung literatus now faced a complement of texts that was truly intimidating. Thus there developed
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

among readers, hoping to cover as many texts as possible, a tendency to jump from one to another. Of course, the result was that readers absorbed little or nothing of
what they read. This troubled Chu, who wanted his students to learn to cope with the heavy burden that Sung culture had placed on them. He cautioned them: "In
reading, the greatest failing is to strive for quantity."28 Quantity simply could be no substitute for true understanding: "Don't value quantity, value only your familiarity
with what you've read" (4.29).29 Chu Hsi's desire to establish a basic curriculum for his students and, moreover, to have them focus on the Four Books as the central
texts in that curriculum would seem, then, to have been entirely consistent with his theory of reading.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

The curriculum thus had to be limited; but it also had to be read in sequence, Chu argued. In general, students were to proceed from easier, more accessible texts to
the more difficult. This no doubt was one of Chu's major considerations in placing the Four Books at the top of the curriculum, before the Five Classics and well
before the histories: "In reading, begin with passages that are easy to understand. For example, principle is brilliantly clear in the Greater Learning, the Doctrine of
the Mean, the Analects, and the Book of Mencius, these four texts. Men simply do not read them. If these texts
27
. This passage is found in Wenchi 74.15b16a as well. Earlier, Ch'eng I and Ch'eng Hao had suggested this sort of experiential reading, repeatedly calling for students to "get the
real taste" of what they read; see Chan, Reflection, pp. 101105, passim.
28
. YL 104.4b/vol. 7, P. 2614.
29
. Elsewhere he entreated his students: "Limit the size of your curriculum" (YL 10.sa/vol. 1, p. 165 [4.22]; cf. other comments in YL 10.5ab/vol. 1, pp. 165166 and also in 10.8b/vol. 1, p.
169 [4.38] and 10. 12b13a/vol. 1, p. 174 [4.52] ). "Read little but become intimately familiar with what you read" (YL 10.4b/vol. 1, p 165 [4.20]; cf. other comments in YL 10.4b/vol. 1, p.
165).

EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 8/9/2019 1:11 PM via MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
AN: 9987 ; Zhu, Xi, Gardner, Daniel K..; Learning to Be A Sage : Selections From the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically
Account: s8864408.main.ehost
Page 44
30
were understood, any book could be read, any principle could be investigated, any affair could be managed." The Way, in Chu's opinion, was simply most
approachable when texts were read in the proper order. Indeed, even among the Four Books themselves there was a proper order according to Chu: "You must start
with the Greater Learning; next read the Analects, next the Book of Mencius, next the Doctrine of the Mean."31 This order, which Chu was the first to prescribe—
the Ch'eng brothers had never given much thought to a reading sequence for the Four Books—became an inviolable article of faith for him. Repeatedly in his writings
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

and conversations with students he insisted on it. For instance:
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

I want men first to read the Greater Learning to fix upon the pattern of the Confucian Way; next the Analects to establish its foundations; next the Book of Mencius to observe its
development; next the Doctrine of the Mean to discover the subtle mysteries of the ancients. The Greater Learning provides within its covers a series of steps and a precise order
in which they should be followed; it is easy to understand and so should be read first. Although the Analects is concrete, its sayings are scattered about in fragments; on first
reading, it is difficult. The Book of Mencius contains passages that inspire and arouse men's minds. The Doctrine of the Mean, too, is difficult to understand; it should be read
only after the other three books.32

Throughout his writings and conversations, then, Chu was insistent that students follow what he believed was a natural progression in making their way through the
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Confucian curriculum, from easier texts to more difficult ones.

Chu Hsi feared that even after students had accepted the proper sequence in their reading of the Classics and the histories they might be led astray by their eagerness
to get through the curriculum. He complained that they tended to read texts too quickly, often skipping from one passage to another, and thus missing the point of the
whole (4.28). He frequently admonished his students to read each text from start to finish, faithfully following the natural order of the argument: "Each section, chapter,
and line [of a text] is in its proper order; this order cannot be disturbed.... When you don't yet understand what precedes, don't venture to what follows;
30
. YL 14. 1a/vol. 1, p. 249.
31
. YL 14. 1a/vol. 1, p. 249.
32
. YL 14. 1 ab/vol. 1, p. 249. The sequence of the Four Books is discussed at length in Gardner, "Principle and Pedagogy."

Chu Hsi also emphasized the need to read slowly, with full concentration, even if this meant that students would cover less ground: "If you are able to read two
hundred characters, read only one hundred, but on those one hundred make a truly fierce effort. Understand them in every detail, recite them until you are intimately
familiar with them.... If you read a great deal, but race through what you read, it will be of no benefit at all" (4.23; cf. 424 and 4.27).34 Chu observed that children had
an easier time learning than adults, principally because they were less hasty, less ambitious:
That children remember what they've read and adults frequently don't is simply because children concentrate their focus. If in one day they are given one hundred characters, they
keep to one hundred characters; if given two hundred characters, they keep to two hundred characters. Adults sometimes read one hundred pages of characters in one day—they
aren't so well focused. Often they read ten separate pieces when it would be best to read one part in ten. (4.22)35

Students thus had to learn to be patient in their reading; they had to be content to advance gradually.

Chu, in fact, even called for students to recite each text over and over again until they no longer saw it as "other."36 For every reading would produce a deeper
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

understanding of it—even fifty or a hundred readings was not too many (4.34 and 5.35).37 There was no prescribed number of times a book was to be read; Chu
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

simply advised that "when the number's sufficient, stop" (5.36).

Chu Hsi's ideal reader, then, would limit the scope of his curriculum, approach the texts in that curriculum sequentially, and read each text gradually from front to back
over and over again, to
33
. Wenchi 74.15b; cf. YL 11.11b/vol. 1, p. 189 (5.40).
34
. See other comments in YL 10.4b7b/vol. 1, pp. 165168.
35
. Cf. YL 10.14b/vol. 1, p. 175 (4.54), where Chu advises those beyond middle age to read very little but to turn the little they do read over and over in their minds.
36
. Chu revealed that when he was seventeen or eighteen he recited the Chungyung and the Tahsüeh each ten times every morning; see YL 16.4b/vol. 2, p. 319.
37
. See other comments in YL 10.8a/vol. 1, pp. 168169.

the point of "intimate familiarity." Still, what guarantee was there that he would finally understand each text as he should? How could he be certain to get at the true
intentions of the sages and worthies of the past? The reader, Chu argued, had to have an "open mind" (hsühsin). For only an open mind would be faithful to "the true
meaning of the classical text" (5.21; cf. 5. 18) and allow the text to speak for itself. To Chu an "open" mind was a mind ''empty" (hsü) of preconceived ideas about
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher,

what the text should or might say.38 The reader who came to the text with preconceived ideas was certain to read those ideas into the text.39 In the end, the text would
serve merely to prop up his ideas, not to reveal the truth expressed there by the sages.40 This sort of subjective reading alarmed Chu: "Nowadays people usually have
an idea in their own minds first, then take what other men have said [in the texts] to explain their idea. What doesn't conform to their idea they forcibly make to
conform" (5.31).41 Chu speculated that the intelligent person in particular would have a difficult time reading texts with an open mind since his mind was already full of
ideas, full of convictions.42 He therefore admonished his own students: "In reading, don't force your ideas on the text. You must get rid of your own ideas and read for
the meaning of the ancients" (5.30; cf. 5.59).43 Effective reading, then, depended on a willingness to doubt (i), and not just the views of others but one's own as well.44
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Indeed, this willingness was the starting point, the premise, of Chu's tushu fa (5.36),45 for only a genuinely inquiring mind would have the tenacity to pursue the
38
. For example, see comments in YL 11.3b4a/vol. 1, pp. 179180 and Wenchi 53.7ab and 74. 16a.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

39
. For example, see comments in YL 11.3b4a/vol. 1, p. 179.
40
. See comments in YL 11.4a/vol. 1, p. 179.
41
. Cf. other comments in YL 11.9b/vol. 1, p. 185 and 137.7ab/vol. 8, p. 3258.
42
YL 139.20a/vol. 8, p. 3317.
43
. Chu wanted the text to speak for itself: "Depend on the text to read the text, depend on the object to observe the object. Don't come to the text or the object with preconceived
ideas" (YL 11.5b/vol. 1, p. 181 [5.24]; cf. also YL 9. 10b/ vol. 1, p. 158 [3.37], 9.10b/vol. 1, p. 159 [3.39], 11.10a/vol. 1, pp. 185186 [5.33], 11.10a/vol. 1, p. 186 [534], and 11.15a/vol. 1, p. 191
[5.48]).
44
. In YL 11.11a/vol. 1, p. 187 (537), Chu remarks: "The problem with men is that they feel the views of others alone may be doubted, not their own."
45
. Earlier Ch'eng I had said (Honan Ch'engshih waishu 11.2b): "The student must first of all know how to doubt."

truth fully, casting aside all preconceived and misguided ideas in the process.

Included in the category of preconceived ideas were traditional views and interpretations of the text that had been passed on and accepted, perhaps even
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

unquestioningly, by the reader (e.g., 5.33 and 5.34). The reader had to learn to treat these received opinions critically. Chu suggested to his students that when they
did not understand a passage it might well be that the accepted view of it, which they had made their own, was leading them astray; they should waste no time in
questioning it, "washing it away," and seeking a new, openminded understanding of the passage based on a careful reading of the original text itself (e.g., 5.33, 5.34,
and 535). Implicit here, it would seem, was a warning to students about the fallibility of the commentary tradition. That tradition could err and hence should not be
accepted unconditionally. Chu claimed that even some of the recent commentaries of Yu Tso (10531123), Yang Shih, and other disciples of the Ch'eng brothers
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

were riddied with mistakes; these men, according to Chu, had at times shown less interest in analyzing the words of the authors than in presenting their own
understanding of principle.46 As a result their commentaries were not very reliable guides to the ancient texts.

To be sure, Chu never suggested that commentaries be abandoned, for they could provide insight and guidance into the text.47 He simply wanted to be certain that
students did not permit the commentaries to lead them blindly and perhaps obscure the real meaning of the text for them: "The classical texts of the sages are like the
master, the commentaries like the slave. Nowadays people are unacquainted with the master and turn to the slave for an introduction to him. Only thus do they
become acquainted with the master. In the end it's not like [turning to] the classical texts them
copyright law.

46
. For example, YL 62.6b/vol. 4, p. 1485 and 62.7a/vol. 4, p. 1485. Even Ch'eng I's commentaries came in for criticism on occasion; see, for instance, YL 19.10b/vol. 2, p. 438 and
11.17a/vol. 1, p. 193 557). Chan, Reflections, pp. 110111, quotes additional passages from Chu Hsi on Ch'eng I's Commentary on the Changes.
47
. Indeed, Chu would have students read and compare the different commentaries on a given text (YL 11.16a/vol. 1, p. 192 [5.50, 5.51] and 11.14b/vol. 1, p. 190 [5.46 )

EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 8/9/2019 1:11 PM via MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
AN: 9987 ; Zhu, Xi, Gardner, Daniel K..; Learning to Be A Sage : Selections From the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically
Account: s8864408.main.ehost
Page 48
48
selves" (5.58). Students were to read the commentaries critically (e.g., 5.51), and only after they had struggled with the classical text itself: "If there are passages you
don't understand, ponder them deeply, and if you still don't get them, then read the commentaries—only then will the commentaries have any significance" (5.48; cf.
5.47). The commentaries surely had a place in the students' reading, Chu believed, but they were not to supersede the classical texts themselves (5.56 and 5.57), nor
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

were they to be allowed to prejudice the reader's "openminded" reading of the classical texts.
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

The successful reading of the texts in the curriculum depended, then, not only on the intelligence of the reader's mind but, as importantly, on its disposition.49 It had to
be "open," free of preconceived ideas. "Opening" the mind, however, required conscious effort. The mind had to be readied to receive the truth in the text. All selfish
desires and prejudices had to be thoroughly "cleansed" from the mind so that it could approach the text without impediment. Chu commented: ''There is a method to
book learning. Simply scrub clean the mind, then read" (5.12). Chu sometimes talked about "settling" the mind as well: "Presently, should you want to engage in book
learning, you must first settle the mind so that it becomes like still water or a clear mirror. How can a cloudy mirror reflect anything?" (5.10). To reflect accurately what
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

was contained in the text, the reader's mind, then, had to have achieved a clear, settled state, free from unchecked emotions and desires. To help his students attain his
state of mind, Chu urged them to practice chingtso, or "quietsitting" (e.g., 5.8 and 6.61),50 once even suggesting that it would be best to give half a day to quiet
sitting and the other half to reading.51 Chu's hope here was that in their time off from reading students would sit quietly in meditation, ridding the mind of any personal
thoughts or desires that might interfere with a fair and faithful reading of the text when they did turn to it.
48
. Cf. also YL 11.13b/vol. 1, p. 189.
49
. See YL 11.21b/vol. 1, p. 189.
50
. See also YL 11.3a/vol. 1, p. 178 and numerous comments in YL 12.17bff./ vol. 1, pp. 216ff. Ch'ien Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan, vol. 2, pp. 277297, discusses Chu's views of ching and
chingtso.
51
. YL 116.20ab/vol. 7, p. 2806.

Quietsitting thus played an important role in the reading process for Chu Hsi.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except

Still, how would this perfectly calm and unobstructed mind come to understand the principle embedded in the text? What enabled the reader, who had worked to
settle his mind and keep it unobstructed, to apprehend the message in the canonical writings? The answer to these questions makes clear the close relationship that
existed between Chu Hsi's tushu fa and his system of metaphysics. Chu's tushu fa, in fact, is not particularly intelligible or meaningful unless we appreciate his
ontological views, for the efficacy of his tushu fa was rooted in his assumptions about principle, human nature, the mind, psychophysical stuff (ch'i),52 and so forth.53

According to Chu, all things in the universe possessed principle, which as defined by him and the Ch'eng brothers before him was both the reason why a thing was as it
was and the rule to which a thing should conform.54 In Chu's view principle in the world was one, it simply had many manifestations.55 So although different things
manifested it in different ways, the rule to which those things conformed was ultimately one, as was the reason those things were as they were. Perhaps "principle," a
translation that on its own has little meaning, should be understood as something like a blueprint or pattern for the cosmos, a blueprint or pattern that underlies
fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

everything and every affair in that cosmos.56 Man, too, naturally possessed principle. And in man this principle, Chu argued, was identical with the human nature
(hsing) heaven had endowed in
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

52
. Ch'i is a difficult term to define or translate, referring as it does to both the material and the energy that pervade the universe and everything in it. For a discussion of ch'i see
Schwartz, World of Thought, pp. 179184. "Material force" has become a conventional translation of ch'i, but even though I find it less cumbersome than "psychophysical stuff," I
also find it less meaningful.
53
. Modern scholarship has unfortunately tended to focus on Chu Hsi's metaphysics, suggesting that issues of metaphysics were his primary interest. In fact, learning was at least as
important for Chu Hsi; after all, the apprehension of principle was the aim of his philosophical program. Chu's metaphysics sustains but by no means overwhelms his epistemological
concerns.
54
. This is the definition given by Chu in his Tahsüeh huowen 15a. See also YL, chüan 12, passim.
55
. Chu was drawing on Ch'eng I's views; see Honan Ch'engshih ishu (hereafter Ishu), pp. 214 and 13, and Ich'uan Ichuan 3.3b. Chu's sympathy with Ch'eng I's formula can be
found in YL 1.2a/vol. 1, p. 2, for example.
56
. On principle see the annotation that follows 1.4.

But every thing—and thus every person—was also born with an endowment of psychophysical stuff. The quality as well as the quantity of the psychophysical stuff
differed from one thing and one individual to another. Some psychophysical stuff was clearer than others, some more refined than others, some less dense than others.
This endowment of psychophysical stuff gave each thing or person its peculiar form and individual characteristics.59 As to the relationship between principle and
psychophysical stuff, Chu was very clear: "There has never been any psychophysical stuff without principle nor any principle without psychophysical stuff."60 The two
entities simply could not exist independently of each other: without principle the psychophysical stuff had no ontological reason for being, and without psychophysical
stuff principle had nothing in which to inhere.

A person's endowment of psychophysical stuff, depending on its clarity and density, could allow his principle—which was one with his benevolent human nature—to
become manifest, or it could obscure it, preventing it from becoming manifest.61 To obscure it was to cut the person off from the ontological basis of his morality and
fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

thus ensure that he would lose the Way.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Man consequently found himself in a predicament, for he lived
57
. Chu was following Ch'eng I here. See his comment praising Ch'eng I's formulation, cited in Chan, Reflections, p. 29: "'The nature is the same as principle.' None since Confucius
and Mencius has ever had this insight. None from ancient times on has ever made such a bold statement."
58
. For numerous comments by Chu on human nature see the annotation that follows 2.3.
59
. On ch'i see YL, chüan 12, passim.
60
. YL 1.1b/vol. 1, p. 2.
61
. Chu put it quite succinctly in his "Preface to the Greater Learning in Chapters and Verses" (preface to Tahsüeh changchü 1a): "Since heaven first gave birth to the people down
below, it has granted them all the same nature of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom. Yet their psychophysical endowments often prove unequal; so not all are able to
know the composition of their natures and thus to preserve them whole." Translation from Gardner, Chu Hsi and the Tahsueh, p. 77.

with the capability of being fully moral yet in most cases found himself falling short of that moral perfection. That is, he was confronted with an innate moral potential,
but one that needed consciously and actively to be given realization. To this end his endowment of psychophysical stuff had to be kept refined and clarified, so that
principle would be unimpeded and shine forth.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

The responsibility that Chu's philosophy placed on the mind was huge, for it was the mind that housed principle (e.g., 3.22, 3.23, and 3.27) and thus the mind that
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

could issue it forth and bring it to realization. But the mind could fail in this task, as it could be led away from realization of principle if excessive emotions or human
desires got the better of it. Chu, like Chang Tsai before him, believed that the mind embraced and governed both human nature (or principle). and the emotions
(ch'ing);62 thus for him the mind could become the battleground for conflict between the two, the locus of man's struggle to achieve morality. Chu told his students: "As
for the mind of man, if heavenly principle is preserved, human desire will disappear. If human desire should overcome it, heavenly principle will be extinguished. Never
do heavenly principle and human desire permeate each other" (7.9).
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

In its original condition the mind was in a state of equilibrium; it was this balance that had to be maintained or regained if the principle in it was not to find itself
overwhelmed by emotions or selfish human desires (6.29). Chu spoke frequently of "preserving the mind" and "seeking the lost mind." As he put it: "It's simply because
man has let go of his mind that he falls into evil" (6.18); or elsewhere, "If a person is able to preserve his mind so that it is exceptionally clear, he'll naturally be capable
of merging with the Way" (6.25). Thus, according to Chu Hsi, the mind, which was constituted of only the most refined and spirited psychophysical stuff,63 was "the
root'' (6. 1). It served as "master" of the person (e.g., 6.4, 6.5, and 6.13). This mind had to be tended to, had to be kept refined, if man was to behave as he should, if
he was to conform to principle (3.31).

The will, chih—which Chu described as the intention or inclina
62
. See, for example, passages in YL 5.9bff/vol. 1, pp. 91ff. and 98.8a9b/vol. 7, pp. 25132515. For Chang's original comment see Chang Tsai chi, p. 374.
63
. E.g., YL 5.3b/vol. 1, p. 85.

EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 8/9/2019 1:11 PM via MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
AN: 9987 ; Zhu, Xi, Gardner, Daniel K..; Learning to Be A Sage : Selections From the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically
Account: s8864408.main.ehost
Page 52
64
tion of the mind or, literally, "where the mind was headed" —could help guide the mind in the right direction. Man thus had to strive to keep his will firmly fixed; for if
it was strong and determined, it would lead the mind along the right path toward the good nature and away from insidious human desires. That is, intemperate desires
and emotions would not have the opportunity to develop, if man so willed. Li chih, "to establish or fix the will," significantly, was one of Chu's most common refrains in
discussions with disciples.65 The mind thus functioned as the indeterminate element in Chu Hsi's philosophical system, the element that made the moral perfection Chu
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

was seeking a possibility, but not by any means an inevitability.66
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Consequently, we find Chu throughout the Conversations of Master Chu, Arranged Topically, particularly in chapter 12, urging his students variously to "control"
the mind, "hold on to it," ''gather it in," "possess it," "keep it constantly alert," and so forth. In different ways he was telling them the same thing: ready the mind for its
confrontation with things and affairs in the world. The mind was to be fully "present" always, fully balanced in its response to matters. To be present and balanced, the
mind first had to be made ching, a state in which it was absolutely attentive to whatever was before it, without being distracted by anything else.67 To be ching to
something was to concentrate all of one's mental energy on it (6.54). Although ching itself referred to a state of mind and was dependent on rigorous mental discipline,
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Chu Hsi suggested certain physical attitudes that would encourage the development of ching: "The head should be upright, the eyes looking straight ahead, the feet
steady, the hands respectful, the mouth quiet and composed, the bearing solemn—these are all aspects of inner mental attentiveness" (6.46). If a person were to
practice ching, his mind would become one, preserved in its. whole (6.40).

The person who practiced inner mental attentiveness, then, in Chu's view possessed a mind that could efficiently and successfully
64
. See passages in YL 5.14a/vol. 1, p. 96.
65
. E.g., YL 8.5a6a/vol. 1, pp. 133134.
66
. This discussion of the mind is based on YL, chüan 5.
67
. Chu's understanding of ching derived from Ch'eng I's; see passages in YL 12.7bff./vol. 1, pp. 206ff.

and in the things before that mind.69 With effort and over time this process would lead to a clearer and clearer understanding of principle. Learning about principle,
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

then, rested on a dialectical relationship: the mind and its principle would make intelligible the things in the world out there and their principle, but the things out there at
the same time would help to illuminate the principle contained in the mind. Or in Chu's words: "The effort to probe principle is naturally subsumed in the nurturing
process—one probes the principle being nurtured. The effort to nurture is naturally subsumed in the process of probing principle—one nurtures the principle being
probed. These two processes are inseparable" (3.7; cf. 3.11, 3.8, 3.23, and 3.9).70 Probing principle to the point of complete apprehension was, of course, the crucial
step in Chu Hsi's program of selfcultivation; for since the principle in things and the principle in man were the same, and since principle in man was identical with his
nature, apprehending principle either in things out there or in oneself was nothing but selfrealization.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Reading the classical texts in the manner set forth in Chu's tushu
68
. The term ko wu comes from the Tahsüeh, "Classic of Confucius," para. 4; Ch'eng I had been drawn to the term earlier, arguing that the process of ko wu enables men to
uncover principle, the source of morality underlying heaven, earth, and all human beings. Chu Hsi, in an elaboration of Ch'eng I's position, made ko wu the centerpiece of his
program of selfcultivation, systematically developing its philosophical significance; he even replaced the "missing" chapter on it in the Tahsüeh text. See Gardner, Chu Hsi and
the Tahsueh, pp. 5357, and the annotation to 3.5 in Part Two. Ko wu is often translated ''the investigation of things," but "apprehending the principle in things" accords much
better with Chu Hsi's understanding of it as it appears in his gloss in his commentary to the "Classic of Confucius," para. 4; see footnote to passage 1.1 in Part Two.
69
. In YL 13.20b/vol. 1, p. 220, Chu comments: "Principle in things and in our mind are essentially one. Neither is deficient in the slightest. What's necessary is that we respond to
things, that's all. Things and the mind share the same principle." See also YL 12.20b/vol. 1, p. 220 and 12.11b/vol. 1, p. 210 (6.38) and the annotation that follows the translation in 6.38.
70
. In YL 126.10a/vol. 8, p. 3016, we read: "According to our Confucian teachings 'maintaining inner mental attentiveness' is the foundation, but 'probing principle' gives that foundation
its full development."

fa was just one way to apprehend principle, one way to realize oneself. For Chu it was perhaps the best way, since principle was, to his mind, more accessible, more
manifest, in them than anywhere else. Indeed, what should be obvious is that Chu possessed a deep faith in the efficacy of the classical writings, in their ability to reveal
principle—fully embodied by the sages and thus by what they wrote—to the reader who really cared (e.g., 4.31). After the tenth or hundredth reading the principle
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

embodied in the texts might illuminate the moral principle in ourselves. And at that point when principle in the text was finally able to awaken fully the principle in the
reader's mind, text and reader truly became inseparable; the reader, it might be said, had at that moment "experienced" the text to the fullest, as Chu hoped he would.
It was this sort of resonance between the reader and the text that Chu seemed to be describing in the following comment:
In reading, we cannot seek moral principle solely from the text. We must turn the process around and look for it in ourselves. Since the Ch'inHan period [Ch'in, 221206 B.C.; Han,
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

206 B.C.A.D. 220] no one has spoken about this; people simply have sought it in the text, not in themselves. We have yet to discover for ourselves what the sages previously
explained in their texts—only through their words will we find it in ourselves. (5.26)71

The dialectical relationship between man's mind and the principle in things was the epistemological premise of Chu's tushu fa then. The mind was what enabled the
reader to grasp the essence, the principle, of the classical texts in the first place, but that essence was what ultimately gave full realization to the potentiality of the mind.
In the end, therefore, genuine understanding of the canon was simply selfunderstanding. Experiencing the text meant experiencing the self.

In developing his rather elaborate tushu fa, Chu Hsi was launching an allout attack on the superficial and misguided literati learning he found typical of the day. The
student had to approach the Confucian texts with a new, almost religious attitude. The truth was in them, he should assume, but he would have to struggle to uncover
copyright law.

it. He would have to burrow through layer after layer of
71
. Cf. similar comments in YL 11.5b/vol. 1, p. 181 and 11.12a/vol. 1, p. 188 (5.41).

meaning to get at the profound intentions of the sages (4.9 and 4.10). The reward of doing so, however, was more than mere advancement in officialdom. It was
spiritual enlightenment. For the texts had an affective force, a transforming power:72 in "experiencing" them, the reader could hope to give fulfillment to the principle in
his mind, his moral potential. And having awakened the latent humaneness of his spirit, he might then become interconnected with all other things in the universe (e.g.,
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

3.28).
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Reading for Chu Hsi was thus nothing but a method of selfcultivation, a way of realizing one's inner perfection through an investigation of things in the world out there;
reading could truly change one's spiritual life. The Ming critics who assailed Chu for an overly scholastic and wooden approach to the Confucian texts, an approach
lacking in moral significance, did not particularly understand Chu; they were perhaps fairer critics of the late Sung through Ming followers of the Chu Hsi school than of
Chu Hsi himself.73 After all, it was these later NeoConfucians, not Chu, who authorized certain interpretations of the Classics as the standard readings for the civil
service examinations. Eager to succeed in the examinations, candidates tended to follow these interpretations blindly. It is one of those ironies of history that many of
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

these "standard" readings were Chu's own. As we have seen, Chu Hsi insisted that his students take anything but an uncritical approach to the canon. The
interpretations and commentaries of others, even those of illustrious NeoConfucians, were all open to question. Each student was encouraged to confront the texts
directly, without the aid of intermediaries, at least at first; as Chu put it, reading the texts of the sages should be "like speaking with them face to face" (4.6). There was
a confidence on Chu's part, then, in the individual's ability to find for himself the truth in the text. To do so, of course, he had to have the right, reverential attitude; that
is, if he approached the work with a singleness of mind (ching), convinced that the truth was indeed imbedded in the text, he might be fortunate enough to hear that
truth.

Chu's tushu fa thus placed a great deal of value on the autonomy of the individual in the reading process. But we must recog
72
. Cf. de Bary, Liberal Tradition, pp. 6062.
73
. For example, see Wang Yangming's implicit criticism of Chu in Chan, Instructions, pp. 275276.

nize that autonomy in the process did not by any means translate into subjectivity in the final understanding. For according to Chu, the truth in the text was the same for
every reader. It was an objective truth, first expressed long ago by the revered sages. Chu may have required the reader to "experience" the text personally, but that
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

was simply so the sages' message would become his own. The message was supposed to transform the reader, not the reader the message. In Chu's tushu fa the
authentic reader, the reader who approached the text in the proper spirit, was guaranteed of reading the classical text objectively, for the principle residing in his mind
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

and that residing in the mind of the sages and expressed in their works were one and the same. Hence, a resonance was certain to occur between the reader's mind
and the text, fully awakening the reader to the true intentions of the sages of the past.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

applicable copyright law.

Chu Hsi and the Transformation of the Confucian Tradition
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

Any student of the Confucian tradition knows that Chu Hsi's concern for learning was by no means new. Learning had been a central issue from the very beginning,
from the time of Confucius himself. In an autobiographical statement made to disciples late in life, Confucius stressed his early commitment to the task of learning: "At
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

age fifteen I set my heart upon learning," and then went on to suggest that it was this early purpose that enabled him eventually "to know the biddings of heaven" and
"to follow the dictates of my own heart without overstepping the boundaries of right."1 No one had a greater passion for learning than he: ''In a hamlet of ten houses
you may be sure of finding someone quite as loyal and true to his word as I. But I doubt if you would find anyone with such a love of learning."2 The message was
perfectly clear: his followers too were to set their hearts on learning. Learning was the path to sagehood, leading men both "to improve themselves in the Way" and "to
devote themselves to the service of the state."3 Only those born sages—and Confucius did not number even himself among these—could dispense with learning.4
or applicable copyright law.

1
. Lunyü 2/4; translation based on Waley, Analects, p. 88.
2
. Lunyü 5/28; translation, with slight modification, from Waley, Analects, p. 114.
3
. E.g., Lunyü 19/7, 19/13; translations based on Waley, Analects, pp. 225, 227.
4
. Lunyü 7/20.

From this time on, learning would remain a central task for Confucians; so central was it that one could not ignore it completely and still claim to belong to the school.
But even though Confucius may have signaled the critical importance of learning for his followers, his discussion of it in the Analects allowed considerable leeway in
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission

later interpretations of exactly how and what the Confucian was to learn. For Confucius never drew up a precise and systematic curriculum for study: though we can
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

assume, I think, that he expected students to master the Book of Poetry, the Book of History, and writings on ritual, he did not establish an order in which they were
to be mastered, nor did he discuss how they were to be read or analyzed. It was left, then, for later Confucians to work out a structured program of learning. Indeed,
the formation of such a program became one of the major points of debate within the later Confucian school.

More serious, however, was the tension engendered by the "polarity" within Confucius's concept of sagehood. To be a sage meant that one had achieved moral
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

perfection and succeeded in serving the people. To Confucius's mind these were simply two dimensions—an "inner" dimension of selfcultivation and an "outer"
dimension of ordering the polity—of the same goal; inextricably linked, they could not rightly be separated. But as Confucius's own experience demonstrated, these
two dimensions were in fact often separated in real life. All too often it seemed that an official career was achieved at the expense of moral perfection or that service to
the people was neglected in the pursuit of selfperfection. Later Confucian thinkers, perhaps in response to practical constraints, often emphasized one dimension over
the other, in some cases one to the virtual exclusion of the other.5

Thus, although Confucians agreed that learning was essential to their task, they could, and often did, disagree about what constituted both the right curriculum and the
proper goal of learning. Of course, these two concerns were closely related. Choice of curriculum was dependent on choice of goals: Was moral cultivation of the
copyright law.

individual a higher priority than sociopolitical action? Or was sociopolitical reform more pressing than the moral development of
5
. On this Confucian "polarity" see Schwartz, "Some Polarities," particularly pp. 5254.

The relative weight Confucians would give to these various possible goals of learning naturally developed out of their sense of the world around them, out of their
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

perception of how it operated and what its problems were. Just as contemporary debates in the United States that rage over the nature of education and the state of
the curriculum reflect differing perceptions of the state of American society, politics, economy, and way of life, so too arguments put forward by Confucian literati
down through the ages about the content and purpose of education reflected differing outlooks on Chinese society, the problems it faced, and how those problems
might be resolved.

During the Sung period, such debates over the nature of learning became a routine part of intellectual life. These debates were Sparked by concern among literati over
the state of the society, particularly over the weakness of the central government in the face of the "barbarian" threat. In the mideleventh century political foes Wang
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Anshih and Ssuma Kuang both agreed that the outer sociopolitical order had to be reformed if the problems of the realm were to be redressed. But they disagreed
about where and how to reform that order. Wang, facing what he believed to be a social, military, and fiscal crisis, was convinced that structural overhaul was
necessary, that new governmental institutions and regulations fostering greater administrative efficiency and economic strength were called for. In power, he
implemented a series of reform measures and established new agencies—often against considerable opposition—that affected all aspects of government.6
Consequently, Wang was denounced by many of his peers for being legalistic, concerned only with laws and techniques of administration. Systems of government
were what really mattered to him, not the morality and integrity of either those who served or those under the influence of those who served, so the argument went.

Ssuma Kuang was one of Wang's most vociferous opponents, so
6
. For a brief summary of Wang's New Policies see Liu, Reform in Sung China, pp. 110; cf. Wang's "Ten Thousand Word Memorial," translated in de Bary, Sources of Chinese
Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 413419, and Williamson, Wang An Shih, vol. 1, pp. 4884.

vociferous in fact that he was forced into exile in Loyang during the reform period of Wang Anshih (10691085). To his mind government as it had evolved over the
centuries did not have to be fundamentally restructured. The institutions and regulations passed down by the ancient sages had proved durable and sound and were not
in need of major reform. He remarked: "Governing the empire may be likened to living in a house. If it becomes worn, one repairs it. Unless there is great ruin, one
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

does not build it anew."7 For him "government was at bottom an ethical and moral problem, not a technical one"; it consisted in employing the "right men," not in
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

devising regulations, laws, and institutions that would work regardless of the individuals who administered them.8 That is, the ageold institutions of state were entirely
adequate in administering the realm; what was necessary now were moral men—beginning of course with the emperor himself—who would serve those institutions
well and, through the agency of government, bring order to society and prosperity to the people. Simply put, for Ssuma good government would be sure to prevail
when good men who knew the principles of good governance were attracted to public service.

The learning each of these men advocated looked to the past—but not to the same past. Wang Anshih and his followers turned to those texts in the Confucian canon
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

that purportedly detailed the institutions and regulations of the Three Dynasties period: the Book of Poetry, the Book of History, and the Rites of Chou (Chou li).
These Classics, particularly the Rites of Chou, offered descriptions of those systems of government that had made early antiquity a golden age; for Wang these texts
could serve as blueprints for government for all time. He explained:
In the worthiness of its individual officials to discharge the duties of office, and in the effectiveness with which its institutions administered the law, no dynasty has surpassed the
early Chou. Likewise, in the suitability of its laws for perpetuation in later ages, and in the expression given them in literary form, no book is so perfect as the Institutes of Chou
(Choukuan).9

7
. Huang Ichou, Hsü Tzuchih t'ungchien ch'angpien shihpu 6.8b; translation from Sariti, "Monarchy, Bureaucracy, and Absolutism," p. 57.
8
. Sariti, "Monarchy, Bureaucracy, and Absolutism," pp. 7475.
9
. I.e., the Rites of Chou. Linch'uan hsiensheng wenchi 84.1b2a; translation from de Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, vol. 1, p. 412.

Wang naturally was not suggesting that the institutions of the Chou be adopted in their exact form in the present but rather that the substance of those institutions could
serve as a model, even in the Sung. And, indeed, he routinely appealed to these three ancient texts in citing precedents for his reform program. So devoted was Wang
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission

to these Classics that in 1073 he established a commission under his direction to provide official commentaries for them; two years later the commentaries were
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

completed, at which time he had them published and sent to all the government schools in the empire.10 Henceforth, throughout most of the last halfcentury of the
Northern Sung these three texts and the commentaries on them by Wang served as the basis for the civil service examinations. It was Wang's belief that by studying
the model institutions and legislation in his favored Classics, literati of the Sung could come to know the good works of the sages and learn for themselves how to
restructure the outer sociopolitical realm into a coherent order.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

For Ssuma Kuang, more interested in statecraft than in institutions of state, the past offered a long record of the successes and failures of governmental policy and
action. Therefore, rather than turning to texts that presented an idealized account of the past—as Wang had—Ssuma preferred to study the stream of known history.
In his view the premier text in the Confucian tradition, the text to be valued and studied most, was the Spring and Autumn Annals—a text Wang had found
contemptible and had banished from the examinations. An annalistic account of historical events, the Spring and Autumn Annals could be used as a casebook for
proper behavior. From it literati could learn why some periods were orderly and some disorderly, why some policies were successful and others had failed, and most
important, what course of action would be most appropriate in the situations confronting them in their official capacities. With his unshakeable conviction that history
could serve as a guide to the present, that the emperor and his officials could learn from the past how to serve the people effectively and morally, Ssuma spent most
of his years in exile in Loyang completing his magnum opus, the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, an annalistic account in 294 chiian of the history of
copyright law.

China from 403
10
. Hartwell, "Historical Analogism," p. 712.

Disregarding my inadequacy I have always wanted to write a chronological history roughly in accordance with the form of the Tso Commentary [on the Spring and Autumn
Annals], starting with the Warring States and going down to the Five Dynasties, drawing on other books besides the Official Histories and taking in all that a prince ought to
know—everything pertaining to the rise and fall of dynasties and the good and ill fortune of the common people, all good and bad examples that can furnish models and
warnings.12

The succeeding emperor, Shentsung (r. 10681085), conferred upon the book its title, Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government.13

As a "historical analogist" Ssuma clearly found great value in all history, even in recent history.14 Whereas Wang Anshih viewed the postThree Dynasties period as a
time of deviation from the Way and thus unworthy of study, Ssuma believed that all history, down through the T'ang and Five Dynasties, was useful and relevant; for
all periods of the past—glorious and bleak—offered lessons for the aspiring official. In his view literati had to know the causes of failure and corruption as well as the
causes of success and prosperity. Only then would they be prepared to evaluate contemporary policy and respond to the exigencies of governing the state.
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

In the late eleventh century, literati in the generation after Wang and Ssuma often found themselves out of high political office, largely as a result of the factionalism
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

generated by Wang's reforms. Not surprisingly, many of them turned their attention away from the political order and concentrated more on how they as individuals
could live meaningful lives out of office.15 The previous generation had focused on the question, How do we implement the Way in the governance of the state? This
generation shifted the focus, asking
11
. On the Tzuchih t'ungchien see Hervouet, ed., Sung Bibliography, pp. 6970.
12
. Li T'ao, Hsü Tzuchih t'ungchien ch'angpien 208.2b; translation, with slight modification, from Pulleyblank, "Chinese Historical Criticism," pp. 153154.
13
. Pulleyblank, "Chinese Historical Criticism," p. 154.
14
. On historical analogism see Hartwell, "Historical Analogism."
15
. See Freeman, "Loyang."

instead, How do we implement the Way in our own lives? Of course this is not to suggest that men like Ssuma had not been interested in the morality of the individual
but simply that what had concerned them more was how to bring the outer sociopolitical order in line with the Way. Nor is it to suggest that men of the following
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

generation, such as Su Shih and Ch'eng I, had no interest in seeing the Way prevail in government; it was simply that they were more interested in how individuals
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

might experience the Way in their own lives.

For Su Shih the Way was mysterious and incapable of definition; it was not something that could be analytically studied or fully realized through the accumulation of
knowledge. Rather, through spontaneous expression of his human emotions, a person could manifest the Way in his own life—human feeling was the source of the
Way for Su. Man's task therefore was to awaken to his own feelings, and to the centrality of feeling in mankind.16 Su declared his preference for an affective
apprehension of the Way in his "Discussion of the Doctrine of the Mean":
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

As for sincerity, what is it? It is what is called "delighting in it" (lo chih), for delighting in it one will naturally be faithful, therefore it says, "Sincerity." As for enlightenment, what
is it? It is what is called "knowing it" (chih chih), for knowing it one reaches the goal, therefore it says, "Enlightenment." Only the sage has not reached knowing while he has
already entered into delighting. That which is entered first is the host, and as such awaits the rest; here then delighting is the host. In the case of a worthy, he has not reached
delighting while already entering knowing. That which is entered first is the host, and as such awaits the rest; here then knowing is the host. When delighting is the host, there are
things that are not known, but knowing is always practiced. When knowing. is the host, although nothing is not known, there are things that cannot be practiced. The Master
said, "To know it is not as good as to love it, and to love it is not as good as to take delight in it.'' Knowing it and delighting in it—this is the distinction between the worthy and
the sage.17

The spontaneous expression of feeling, then, would put one in touch with the source and transform one into a sage, a state of
16
. See Murck, "Su Shih's Reading of the Chungyung," p. 286.
17
. Su Tungp'o ch'uanchi, vol. 2, pp. 760761; translation, with slight modification, from Murck, "Su Shih's Reading of the Chungyung," p. 276.

being in which things "are not known, but knowing is always practiced."

Su Shih described his own behavior as spontaneously coming from within, unselfconscious and unreflective, without consideration for external standards of right and
wrong:
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

Alas! I am the man in the empire most wanting in premeditative thought. When something comes up I speak; there is no time for thought. If I think before I speak, I miss my
chance; if I think after I have spoken it is too late. And so all my life I do not know what I think. Words arise in my mind, and rush into my mouth. If I spit them out I offend other
people; if I swallow them back I offend myself. And thinking it better to offend others, in the end I spit them out. The gentleman reacts to good just as he loves a lovely color,
toward evil just as he hates a hateful smell. How could it be that when confronted with a matter he thinks, calculating and deliberating its good and evil aspects and only then
rejects or espouses it?18

This is obviously more than a mere confession on Su's part; it is a proposal that his intuitive responsiveness become a model for others.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

In suggesting how to cultivate the Way, Su Shih advocated that men cultivate their creativity, that they learn to give expression to their inner feelings, the source of the
Way, through literature and art, through the pursuit of culture. There was no prescribed body of texts to be mastered as part of this pursuit; the whole range of earlier
literary and cultural accomplishments was available to inspire the creative seed innate in men. As one scholar has observed, Su's "apprehension of the tao was
aesthetic, not rational .... For Su Shih, the function of literature was to intuit the tao (wen yi kuan tao), a mode of apprehension as well as expression."19 And that Su
felt he had indeed apprehended it, he made very clear:
My writing is like a tenthousandgallon spring. It can issue from the ground anywhere at all. On smooth ground it rushes swiftly on and covers a thousand li in a single day
without difficulty. When it twists and turns among mountains and rocks, it fits its form to things it meets: unknow

18
. Su Tungp'o ch'üanchi, vol. 1, p. 393; translation from Hatch, "Su Shih," vol. 3, pp. 959960.
19
. Hatch, "Su Shih," vol. 3, p. 960; cf. Hatch, "Thought of Su Hsün," pp. 149150.

But not all thinkers of the time agreed with Su. Most notably, Ch'eng I found the preoccupation of Su and his followers with literary pursuits misguided, denouncing it
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

as one of the three "evil practices" among students of the day, one that prevented them from advancing toward the Way.21 Su, in Ch'eng's eyes, had made literary
expression primary and, in the process, had lost sight almost entirely of the more fundamental moral concerns of the Confucian persuasion; in Su's program of learning
through culture the Way had become relativistic, something that might be realized or expressed altogether differently by each individual. There were simply no
guarantees that the Way practiced by everyone would be the same.

This troubled Ch'eng I, who was seeking moral order and stability in the universe. For Ch'eng the Way was absolute and knowable, a unity residing in heaven, earth,
and each and every person. Each person, then, had the potential, indeed the responsibility, to learn to give realization to the Way residing in him:
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

What is the way to learn? Answer: From the essence of life accumulated in heaven and earth, man receives the five agents in their highest excellence. His original nature is pure
and tranquil. Before it is aroused, the five moral principles of his nature, called humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness, are complete. As his physical form
appears, it comes into contact with external things and is aroused from within. As it is aroused from within, the seven feelings, called pleasure, anger, sorrow, joy, love, hate, and
desire, ensue. As feelings become strong and increasingly reckless, his nature becomes damaged. For this reason the enlightened person controls his feelings so that they will be
in accord with the mean. He sets his mind in the right and nourishes his nature. This is therefore called turning the feelings into the [original] nature....

The way to learn is none other than setting one's mind in the right and nourishing one's nature. When one abides by the mean and correctness and becomes true to oneself, one is
a sage. In the learning of the superior

20
. Tungp'o t'ipa 1.15b; translation from March, "Self and Landscape," p. 385.
21
. Ishu, p. 208.

Since in Ch'eng's view heaven and earth participated in the Way with man, they could serve as guide or model in man's quest for sagehood, for realization of the Way.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair

In heaven and earth man could become awakened to the Way in himself, to the principle embodied in his mind and one with his nature. This is why Ch'eng I called for
ko wu:
Someone asked what the first step was in the art of moral cultivation. There is nothing prior to "setting the mind in the right" and "making the thoughts true." Making the
thoughts true lies in the extension of knowledge, and ''the extension of knowledge lies in ko wu."23 Ko means chih, "to arrive," as in the phrase tsuk'ao lai ko, "the ancestors
arrive."24 In each thing there is a manifestation of principle; it is necessary to pursue principle to the utmost.25

Man was to apprehend principle in the myriad things of heaven and earth in order to give expression to his own moral propensities.

What made this process possible philosophically was Ch'eng I's fundamental belief that moral truth was immanent in all things, that it was one, absolute, and ultimately
knowable—a conviction clearly not shared by Su Shih: "Things and self are governed by the same principle. If you understand one, you understand the other, for the
truth within and the truth without are identical. In its magnitude it reaches the height of heaven and earth, but in its refinement it constitutes the reason of being in every
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

single thing. The student should appreciate both."26 For Ch'eng, Su Shih's creative literary expression was not tied to fixed values and moral standards. Hence, Su and
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

his followers were mere libertines ultimately destructive of the Confucian Way.27 By the same token, Ch'eng I's insistence that morals were absolute and values
immutable and his fastidious observance of the rules of decorum led Su to conclude
22
. Ich'uan wenchi 4.1a; translation, with slight modification, from Chan, Source Book, pp. 547548.
23
. From Tahsüeh, "Classic of Confucius," para. 4.
24
. From Shang shu 5.14b; cf. Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. 3, p. 87.
25
. Ishu, p. 209.
26
. Ishu, p. 214; translation from Chan, Source Book, p. 563.
27
. See Hatch, "Thought of Su Hsün," pp. 149150, and Ishu, p. 262.

that Ch'eng I was something of a martinet, whose philosophical vision in the end posed a grave threat to the creativity and the responsiveness called for by the Way.28

Even though Ch'eng I and Su Shih did not get along, neither of them in turn cared much for Wang Anshih and his New Policies. By the late eleventh century these
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

three men and the "schools" of followers they attracted had come to constitute three rather distinct intellectual orbits. Certainly this is how Ch'eng I at the time viewed it
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

when he observed that in his day there were three schools of learning: the school of literary writing, the school of classical commentaries, and his own school of Ju, the
true Confucians who pursued the Way.29 And not long after, Ch'en Shan (fl. late twelfth century) of the Southern Sung echoed Ch'eng I's classification of learning:
"Chingkung [i.e., Wang Anshih] with classical studies, Tungp'o with argumentative writing, and Mr. Ch'eng with nature and principle [i.e., morality]—these three
men established what were essentially schools, each following a different path."30 These three schools of learning, then, represented the major intellectual alternatives to
literati in the closing decades of the eleventh century.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

In the early twelfth century, during the postreform period (10931125) of the late Northern Sung, proponents of Wang's reform program were in control of
government. Wang's school of learning thus became ascendant, promoted as it was by the state in matters of policy and in the civil service examinations. Indeed, a sort
of literary inquisition was launched at this time against those opposed to Wang, and the works of both Su Shih and Ch'eng I were officially condemned and ordered
destroyed. But with the fall of the Northern Sung to the Chin invaders in 1125, Wang's political and educational programs quickly lost most of their favor among
literati, who held the reformers responsible, at least in part, for the
28
. Their dislike of each other is remarked upon by Chu Hsi in YL 130.14b15a/vol. 8, p. 3109, for example. Chu claimed that Su had little patience with correct and highprincipled
men; see YL 130.16b/vol. 8, p. 3110.
29
. Ishu, p. 208. See Lo Kentse's discussion of these three schools in Chungkuo wenhsüeh p'iping shih, vol. 3, pp. 6670; cf. Liu's treatment of the intellectual divisions of the late
eleventh century in Reform in Sung China, pp. 2729.
30
. Ch'en Shan, Menshih hsinhua, p. 23; cited in Lo, Chungkuo wenhsüeh p'ip'ing shih, vol. 3, p. 66, and Goyama, "Shu Ki no Sogaku hihan, josetsu," p. 25.

tragic fate of the north. The writings of the Su and Ch'eng schools now began to attract much greater interest, aided by the patronage of prominent government
officials. To be sure, the doctrines of the Ch'eng school were occasionally denounced by peace advocate and prime minister Ch'in Kuei (served 11381155) and
others, presumably because followers of the Ch'eng school found Ch'in and his peace policy reprehensible, but in the end the attacks did little to stem the rising tide of
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

Ch'eng learning.31
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

It was into this world of literati learning and discourse that Chu Hsi was born. Although Wang Anshih's name had become odious to some, his legacy was nonetheless
alive. And the schools of learning of Su Shih and Ch'eng I were growing ever more popular. In fact, Chu's father, Sung, happened to be among the admirers of Ch'eng
I's learning and himself introduced it to his son. Thus, as early as age eleven, Chu Hsi was already familiar with the Ch'eng school's teachings. Yet not entirely satisfied
and driven by curiosity, Chu would continue for the next thirty years or so to take various teachers—including Buddhists and Taoists—in search of true learning, until
at the age of thirtynine he returned to the teachings of Ch'eng I, never to leave them again. In 1168 he compiled The Surviving Works of Messrs. Ch'eng of Honan
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

(Honan Ch'engshih ishu), proclaiming in the preface that only with the Ch'eng brothers had the learning of the Way, not transmitted for more than a thousand years
since the death of Mencius, finally been revived.32 To Chu's mind their learning—particularly that of the younger brother, I—alone transmitted the true Way and thus
had to be vigorously defended. And defend it he did: in two letters written in the same year, Chu Hsi launched harsh attacks on Wang Anshih and Su Shih, arguing
that both their brands of learning were destructive of the Way and constituted heterodoxies; the Way had to be defended against them, he said, just as it once had to
be defended against the heterodoxies of Yang Chu and Mo Ti.33 Men
31
. On the waxing and waning of these three schools in the late Northernearly Southern Sung period, see Goyama, "Shu Ki no Sogaku hihan, josetsu," pp. 2528; Winston Wan Lo,
Life and Thought of Yeh Shih, p. 35; and Schirokauer, "NeoConfucians under Attack," pp. 164167.
32
. Wenchi 75.16b.
33
. Wenchi 30.7a11b; cited in Ch'ien Mu, Chutzu hsin hsüehan, vol. 3, pp. 602605, who dates them to 1168. The reference here is to Mencius's defense of the Way against the
heresies of Yang and Mo, Mengtzu 3B/9.

cius had made himself protector of Confucius's teachings; Chu would do the same for Ch'eng I's.

Like many literati of the day, Chu Hsi placed much of the blame for the fall of the north on Wang Anshih's New Policies, claiming rather broadly that they were "the
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair

source of the calamities and failures of the age."34 It was not that Wang had not meant well, but his learning, Chu charged, was misguided: "Chingkung was virtuous in
conduct, but his learning was wrong."35 His learning, then, was the real source of the calamities of the Sung: "Through errors in his learning Wang Anshih brought
defeat to the state and destruction to the people.''36 And the reason Wang's learning was wrong is that "he didn't understand moral principle thoroughly."37 Although
Wang had rightly focused on the Classics—much as Chu himself did—he was looking for the wrong message there. Instead of concentrating on apprehending moral
truth in them, which could guide all men in all ages, he studied the Classics for what they disclosed about enriching and strengthening the state. For Chu these were not
the true concerns of the sages of antiquity; he could only deduce therefore that Wang was not genuinely interested in the Classics or, for that matter, in antiquity itself:
If he had been truly interested in antiquity, why did he not pay the slightest attention to the fundament of rectifying the ruler, the task of winning over the worthies, the policy of
nourishing the people, the way of bettering customs—all of which the ancients regarded as matters of the highest priority and greatest urgency—but instead concern himself only
with resources, wealth, the military, and punishments?38

Chu Hsi simply concluded that "Chiehfu's learning is incorrect, incapable of explaining the sages' ideas."39
uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Wang had erred in not understanding that moral cultivation was the primary goal of Confucian learning and that the Classics would serve to guide men toward their
realization of moral truth. His learning had separated inner morality from outer sociopolitical
34
. Wenchi 70.7a; cf. Wenchi 70.10b.
35
. YL 130.3b/vol. 8, p. 3097.
36
. Wenchi 70.12b.
37
. YL 130.3b/vol. 8, p. 3097; cf. Wenchi 70.13a.
38
. Wenchi 70.10b; cf. Bol, "Literati Learning," p. 169.
39
. YL (Chunghua Shuchü edition), vol. 7, p. 2694 (chüan 109, which is missing from my Ch'uan ching t'ang edition).

Wang, in Chu's view then, had rightly made the Classics the core of his curriculum; it was his inability to appreciate the true message of the sages, to uncover the moral
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

principle in them, that had left his learning deficient. But Chu Hsi also criticized Wang for taking no interest in historical texts (5.44). Historical texts would help
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

illuminate how moral principle had operated in actual historical circumstances and thus enhance understanding of moral principle itself. They would also provide lessons
that would be of use in administering the realm. Chu Hsi here was something of a historical analogist himself, who could argue:
Simply to read through the histories is not as good as reading through the twists and turns in them with an eye to the present, observing that this is what order and disorder are,
this is what victory and defeat are, and that "following the path of orderly government is certain to lead to prosperity, while following the path of disorder is certain to lead to
ruin."(5.66; cf. 542, 565, and 5.67)
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

He even urged students to study the institutions and laws presented in historical works (5.65). But naturally, for Chu, the study of history had to be informed by a
sound understanding of moral principle, which was to be reached by a thorough study of the Classics; only a prior understanding of moral principle would give one the
wherewithal to assess the past judiciously and apply its lessons effectively.41 And Wang Anshih, Chu lamented, had never even reached an understanding of moral
principle—that he had not turned to the histories was not his gravest fault.

Chu Hsi was even more anxious about the Su school than he was about the Wang school, for in his day it wielded far greater influence. As indicated earlier, many of
Chu's essays, letters, and conversations evince an uneasiness over Su's writings, a fear that
40
. Wenchi 70.13a. This is why if a man like Ch'eng Hao had effected the policies they would not have ended in disaster; see YL 130.3a/vol. 8, p. 3097.
41
. Chu Hsi, for example, roundly attacked his contemporaries Lü Tsuch'ien and Ch'en Liang (11431194) of the Chekiang school for their preoccupation with history and their
ignorance of the Classics; because their learning was imbalanced and misguided, their values and goals were wrong. See Tillman, Utilitarian Confucianism.

the premium placed on literary style by official examiners and arbiters of culture since the Northern Sung had made the works of the Su school enormously popular in
Chu's day. They could be found circulating everywhere and were imitated quite freely by candidates hoping to win examination degrees. The popularity of Su's works
received still a further boost during the reign of Emperor Hsiaotsung (r. 11631189), whose admiration for Su led him in 1173 to write a preface to his collected
writings and to confer posthumously upon him the prestigious position of grand preceptor (rank 1A).43

Chu actually felt that it was dangerous to read Su's works; that is why he found their popularity among twelfthcentury literati so alarming. Su's learning, after all, was
not correct, for his writing rarely touched upon the Way. Su Shih himself had not first cultivated the Way then produced good writing that manifested it as he should
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

have; rather he had cultivated good writing, without paying much attention to the Way at all. Chu argued that by throwing themselves into Su's works—as they were
wont to do—students might well learn a "profound and clever literary style," but at great cost.44 As he put it, over time Su's "cunning and insolence enter deep into the
minds of men."45 It was not, then, simply that Su's writing did not teach the Way but that it had the power to transform men for the worse, to inculcate in them habits of
artifice and cunning. And this would happen without their knowing it; Chu therefore urged them not to turn to Su's works at all, even for mere diversion.46
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Dangerous too was Su Shih's program of moral cultivation. Men, Su had suggested, could apprehend the Way through literary and artistic pursuits. This, in Chu's
view, was to make the Way
42
. E.g., YL 139.9ab/vol. 8, pp. 33053306.
43
. Goyama, "Shu Ki no Sogaku hihan, josetsu," p. 27.
44
. Wenchi 37.20b.
45
. Wenchi 37.20a.
46
. Wenchi 33.5ab.

secondary to literary cultivation, to reverse the proper order of things: "If you use literary writing to intuit the Way, this is to make the root the branches and the
branches the root—it can't be done."47 For Chu the Way was not mysterious and unknowable (e.g., 3.36), something to be intuited only through creative expression;
both it and moral principle were solid, in all things, and open to direct apprehension and cultivation. Embrace the Way first through investigation, he advised, and good
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

literary writing will flow from it naturally. The Way must guide one's literary expression if that expression is to be true and compelling. If one's literary expression serves
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

as guide to the Way, what ensures that one will arrive at the true Way? What guarantees that all individuals necessarily will arrive at the same fixed Confucian Way?
Chu suspected that in fact there were no guarantees and therefore routinely accused Su of being Buddhist or Taoist.48

Ch'eng I earlier had condemned both the literary learning of the Su school and the classical learning of the Wang school, referring to them as evils plaguing the world of
Sung literati; both compromised the only true learning, the learning of the Way.49 True learning for Ch'eng I was learning to be moral. And learning to be moral was a
lifelong enterprise requiring students to investigate not only what constituted moral behavior but what the very nature and source of morality were. Ch'eng himself
assumed that there was a moral order underlying the entire cosmos, both the physical world and the human world. The physical world manifested this moral order
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

naturally and at all times, but the human world had to struggle to manifest it. That is, the human world could be made to reflect the cosmic order but only with effort,
only if men resolutely determined to study this order and cultivate it in their own lives. Both Ch'eng's assumption about the cosmos and his hope for humankind were
embraced by Chu Hsi, indeed, were what drew him to Ch'eng I's school of learning.

The Ch'eng school for Chu represented a belief in a universe possessed of an embedded moral standard; the Way was absolute, unchanging, inhering in all things, all
human beings, heaven and
47
. YL 139.9a/vol. 8, p. 3305.
48
. E.g., Wenchi 30.7b and YL 139.9ab/vol. 8, pp. 33053306.
49
. Ishu, p. 208.

earth. There was none of the moral relativism or lassitude Chu had found so threatening in Su Shih's learning. One of Chu's most oftquoted lines from Ch'eng I was
"principle is one, its manifestations many"; he clearly found the moral certitude provided by Ch'eng I comforting. After positing the ultimate oneness of moral principle,
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

the Ch'eng school then urged students to pursue it in all things and affairs—to apprehend it fully, thereby realizing it in themselves. Ko wu, arriving at an understanding
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

of principle, of the moral pattern underlying the cosmos and self, was the mission all followers of the Ch'eng school agreed to undertake; consequently, the subject
matter of the school was the entire universe and all things in it.

Chu Hsi found Ch'eng I's proposal to investigate principle in the universe enormously compelling and, indeed, made it the very foundation of his philosophical program.
He worked hard to fashion Ch'eng I's various remarks on ko wu, appearing throughout Ch'eng's works, into a coherent vision, which would give direction to his own
students in their pursuit of the Way.50 But where I think Chu Hsi differed from Ch'eng I, and where I think one of his great original contributions to NeoConfucianism
lay, was in narrowing the field of the study of principle. For Chu, as for Ch'eng, principle could be found everywhere and thus was to be investigated everywhere. But
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Chu wanted to give more guidance to the inquiry, wishing to make principle as readily accessible to students of the Way as possible. Thus he rooted the study of
principle firmly in the study of books, and in particular, the Confucian Classics. In short, what he did was to take Ch'eng I's abstract, discursive discussion of principle
and nature and ground it thoroughly in the canonical tradition, in effect to merge what in the Northern Sung had been the study of the Classics and the study of
morality. I naturally do not wish to suggest here that Ch'eng I was not interested in the Classics—he was, and he urged his students to turn to them in their study of
principle.51 But Ch'eng I viewed the canon as just a small part of the students' field of investigation,52 and he himself spent little of his life annotating ands commenting
on the classical texts, with the notable exception of the Book of Changes.
50
. See Chan, "Chu Hsi's Completion," p. 87.
51
. See, for example, his remark in Chan, Reflections, pp. 4748.
52
. For example, Ishu, p. 209.

Chu, by contrast, made the canon the field of study, the place to turn to apprehend principle. He was completely confident that even though principle inhered in all
things it was most readily revealed in the works of the sages, men who themselves had fully realized the Way and principle in their daily lives. This, of course, explains
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission

why Chu Hsi, and not Ch'eng I, gave so much consideration to the development of a curriculum and hermeneutics.53 It also explains why he spent such a large part of
from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable

his adult life writing and refining commentaries on the classical canon. For Chu the Classics in a sense were the microcosm of Ch'eng I's heaven and earth and could
mediate between the human world and the physical universe: it was in them that principle was most accessible.

It might be noted here that Chu's wellknown philosophical opposition to his contemporary Lu Chiuyüan was precisely over this issue of how and where best to
locate principle. Arguing that the original mind of man was identical with principle, and that this original mind and the universe were one, Lu had little philosophical
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

reason to propose a process of external investigation or any process of mediation between man and the universe; for him the apprehension of principle required simply
that men turn their gaze inward to the realization of the perfect mind, the universal mind with which they were born. No curricular guidance, no field of study, was
necessary. Chu found Lu's program for selfperfection dangerously subjective, frequently even calling it Buddhistic. Arguing instead that principle was one with human
nature and not the mind, and that the mind was precarious and prone to error, Chu Hsi regarded the establishment of a clear, detailed curricular program that could
guide men carefully but surely to an understanding of principle (and hence their nature) a critical part of his philosophical program and life's mission.

In any event, by grounding the Ch'eng school's discussion of abstract metaphysics in the Confucian canon, Chu Hsi was able to bring the learning of Ch'eng I more
firmly into the Confucian fold than had Ch'eng himself: he was able to convince Sung Confucians that discussion of principle and nature was a truly legitimate Confucian
copyright law.

enterprise. By this means Chu was responsible for making Ch'eng I's school of the Way, which in the Northern Sung period
53
. Gardner, "Principle and Pedagogy," pp. 6567.

had been but a peripheral current, the Confucian mainstream by the dynasty's close.

To speak generally, then, literati of the eleventh century gave most of their attention to the reform of the sociopolitical order. By the late eleventhearly twelfth century,
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

however, a rather dramatic shift had begun to occur: literati now tended to focus more on the reformation of man, on the moral perfectibility of the individual. To be
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

sure, in the eleventh century, literati such as Wang Anshih and Ssuma Kuang had expressed an interest in identifying good men and bringing them into government
service; but Ch'eng I and Chu Hsi were not nearly so concerned with how to identify good men as they were with how to make good men. This, for them, was the
consuming problematic. Social and political harmony would prevail only when individuals in society had first cultivated their moral goodness. The belief that the state of
the sociopolitical order was dependent on the moral state of those in that order had its sanction in one of the Confucian Classics, the Greater Learning:
Only after the principle in things is fully apprehended does knowledge become complete; knowledge being complete, thoughts may become true; thoughts being true, the mind
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

may become set in the right; the mind being so set, the person becomes cultivated; the person being cultivated, household harmony is established; household harmony
established, the state becomes well governed; the state being well governed, the empire becomes tranquil.54

This text, which Chu required his followers to read before all others in the Confucian tradition, provided powerful justification for the Ch'engChu shift in interest
toward the inner realm of human morality. For it asserted quite unambiguously that the wellbeing of family, state, and even empire hinged entirely on the moral
rectitude of the individual.

Taking note of the literati shift in focus that occurred in the later years of the Northern Sung period is easier than explaining it. The spirit of political reform so evident
since the reign of Emperor Jentsung (r. 10231063) had run its course and given way to a political pessimism, to a sense that little was to be achieved through political
action. After all, reformers since the 1040s had labored hard to
54
. Tahsüeh, "Classic of Confucius," para. 5.

bring about political change, to make government strong, efficient, and fair. Yet, as the Northern Sung approached its end, the bureaucracy was embroiled in bitter,
paralyzing factionalism, the country's economy was weak and overburdened, and to the north China faced a menacing military threat in the Jurchen. What had gone
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

wrong? Why hadn't reform efforts succeeded? Reflecting on the current state of affairs, men like Ch'eng I were convinced that simply too little attention had been given
to the inner sphere. Political and social action without a strong moral foundation would lead nowhere. The results of Wang's bold efforts to reform the polity under
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

Shentsung merely served to confirm this conviction. Wang's efforts were well intentioned, they conceded, yet they failed largely because Wang had not attended to
the inner sphere; he had made the serious error of separating inner moral concerns from outer sociopolitical ones. Ch'eng and later Chu, feeling that such imbalance
had to be redressed, tried to redirect literati attention back to the inner, to questions about man's morality, its source, and how to realize it in daily life. Perhaps once
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

men focused on these questions, once they had learned to manifest their own moral selves,' they could then turn their efforts to the larger realm with greater success
than Wang had.

The turn inward resulted then partly from the perception that political reform—without attention first to the moral development of the individual—had not been very
successful. But the inward shift may be linked, at least indirectly, to another perception of late Northern Sung literati, that holding high office was dangerous. The fierce
factionalism encouraged by Wang Anshih's reform attempts had resulted in harsh recriminations against prominent officials who found themselves on the wrong side at
applicable copyright law.

the wrong time. Su Shih's banishment to the hot and uncultured far south was just one measure of the risk high office holding held, but it must have cast serious doubts
in the minds of many a potential official. "Hawks" and "doves" in bitter disagreement over how to deal with the Chin occupation of the Central Plain continued the
acrimonious factionalism into the Southern Sung period; Chu Hsi's own father was forced from office because of his opposition to Ch'in Kuei's "peace party." Fearful,
then, that changing political winds in the capital would put them and their families in trouble sooner or later, literati of the late Northern and Southern Sung retreated
from the national

political scene, directing their attention instead toward their own localities and communities. Indeed, Chu's own involvement in the development of local institutions
such as the community compact and academies reflected this trend.55
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher,

As their practical concerns shifted from the national to the local, so too the focus of their philosophical interests shifted: matters relating to the governance of the empire
became less immediate, less compelling, to them, and matters relating to the self and its new predicament became more so. In short, as they became less directly
involved in running the empire, their thoughts turned away from questions of statecraft toward questions of how they as individuals could live meaningful, virtuous lives
out of high office.

In fact, by the turn of the twelfth century living a meaningful, virtuous life out of office had gained a legitimacy among literati that it surely did not have earlier in the early
except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

to midNorthern Sung period. At that time one could hardly claim membership in the elite unless one served in public office. But with the exile from office to Loyang of
Wang Anshih's political opponents—some of them among the most prominent literati of the day—literati themselves had little choice but to begin to attach greater
value to life out of office. The life of scholarship and moral cultivation came, almost faute de mieux, to replace life in high office. Speaking of the exile in Loyang, one
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

scholar has recently written:
In such a society it was no longer so overwhelmingly important, as it had been at the time of the first reform in the 1040's, to serve in office. What was important was to be
numbered in the fellowship of virtuous men. This Confucian society, the society of the virtuous, could be seen as transcending the state (or rather particular political situations)
and sometimes as alienated from political life.56

"Transcending the state" may be going too far, but for exiled literati the society of the virtuous certainly was an alternative to the state. Part of the legacy of this exile—
and the factionalism that prompted it—then, was to give much greater value and currency to the inner sphere of moral cultivation of the individual. Tending to
55
. That there was a retreat from the national toward the local beginning in the late Northern Sung is the main argument put forth in Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen; see, in
particular, pp. 121122, 132135.
56
. Freeman, "Loyang," p. 78.

one's own virtue took on greater importance than tending to the vicissitudes of the state.
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

This is not to suggest that Confucian literati were simply "pushed" into the shift inward by external social, political, and economic circumstances. For literati were
intellectually receptive to this shift in the first place; they were intellectually ready to ask the sorts of questions demanded by the new problematic. Buddhists had long
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

been addressing such concerns as human nature, selfrealization, man's relation to the cosmos, and enlightenment. Confucian literati since the T'ang, even while
challenging many of the specific philosophical formulations of the Buddhists, had nonetheless come to find some of the general concerns raised by them relevant and
meaningful. And by the Sung, dialogue between the Buddhist and Confucian schools was commonplace and quite active: for instance, Ouyang Hsiu, Wang Anshih,
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Su Shih, Chou Tuni, Chang Tsai, the Ch'eng brothers, the Ch'engs' disciples, and Chu Hsi, just to mention a few of the great Confucians, not only numbered
prominent Buddhists among their acquaintances but had themselves all studied Buddhism. In other words, Sung literati were already predisposed to confront questions
about the nature of man, the source of his morality, and his place in the universe; these were men poised for the turn inward.

The literati shift inward we have been describing was accompanied by and reflected in a dramatic shift in the Confucian curriculum. Beginning in the Northern Sung,
men turned their focus away from the venerable Five Classics—the Book of Changes, the Book of Poetry, the Book of History, the Book of Rites, and the Spring
applicable copyright law.

and Autumn Annals—hitherto the central texts in the Confucian tradition, toward texts in the canon that better addressed their new concerns. Reading through the
Analects and the Book of Mencius (two of the Thirteen Classics) and the Greater Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean (two chapters from another of the
Thirteen Classics, the Book of Rites), they discovered writings in the Confucian tradition that probed into the nature of man, the springs or inner source of his morality,
and his relation to the universe—the very issues most on their minds. These four works, along with the Book of Changes, quickly came to be the favored texts of
Confucians. In 1190, Chu Hsi formalized their status by publishing them together for the first time in a collection titled the Four Masters (Ssutzu). And by calling,

throughout his life, for students of the Way to read and master the Four Books (as the Four Masters commonly came to be known) before all other texts in the
tradition, including the Five Classics, he heralded a transition in Confucianism from the age of the Five Classics to the age of the Four Books. From the thirteenth
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the

century to the eighteenth century—arguably to the early years of the present century—the Four Books would constitute the central texts of the Confucian school,
superseding in importance the Five Classics. The Five Classics, of course, would still be seriously studied by all who claimed to be Confucians, but the Four Books—
publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.

and the issues they raised—would receive much greater attention and, indeed, in the succeeding Yüan period would even be declared the basis of the civil service
examinations.57

In his own day Chu's call for a curriculum that took as its core the Four Books must have seemed like an appeal to Confucian literati to lead less politically active,
more private, contemplative lives. The new texts of choice, after all, would have men focus principally on cultivating their morality, not on serving. In any case, we
cannot fail to notice that the curricular shift to the Four Books was contemporaneous with the literati retreat from national politics suggested in the recent work of
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

Hartwell and Hymes.58 This, of course, is not to argue that the curricular shift necessarily set off the retreat from high office but rather, at the very least, that the
curricular and political changes of the period likely encouraged and justified each other.

Chu himself saw his curriculum as providing literati with a training that was explicitly not professional; it was meant by him to be an alternative to examinationoriented
learning, for those seeking spiritual advance, not the material advance resulting from success in the examinations. Chu's aim here was an ambitious one, nothing less
than the transformation of learning, from professional preparation for public service to a meaningful way of life in itself, a vocation. His rigorous curriculum, together
with his tushu fa, required of students total commitment to the pursuit of the Way; for him
57
. For a fuller treatment of the literati shift from the Five Classics to the Four Books see Gardner, Chu Hsi and the Tahsueh, chap. 1. On the importance Chu Hsi attached to the
Four Books see Gardner, ''Principle and Pedagogy."
58
. Hartwell, "Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China," and Hymes, Statesmen and Gentlemen.

learning was learning to be a sage—it was lifelong, not merely a stage in one's career. Chu Hsi of course never advocated that literati shun office. But by establishing a
highly demanding program of learning and tushu fa, a full tradition of commentaries on the canonical texts, a rather large body of editions and anthologies of the
the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law.
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from

writings of the great NeoConfucian masters of the Northern Sung, and academic institutions and centers of teaching where they could engage in disinterested study,
he did create for them a valued way of life outside of official service. In Chu's efforts to promote true learning, then, perhaps there was something of a realization that a
life of official service was no longer open to all literati, or at least that not all literati found such a life desirable.

Moreover, by redefining the aim and content of literati learning, Chu in effect opened up the Confucian tradition beyond the boundaries set for it in the preceding
centuries. No longer would the audience for the message of the ancient sages be confined largely to potential bureaucrats, literati intent on taking the examinations and
then serving in office. Now, any literatus—including, of course, the potential bureaucrat—with hopes of learning to become a fully moral human being, a sage, was
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

invited to discover the enduring truths of the great Confucian tradition.

Chu Hsi's ideas on learning—its content, its message, and the methodology for it—were guaranteed a large audience among the literate elite long after his death in
1200. Not only did the Conversations of Master Chu continue to circulate but other works—both private and offical—appeared that incorporated Chu's most basic
ideas on learning. For example, in the fourteenth century the private scholar Ch'eng Tuanli (12711345) adopted Chu's ideas in drawing up a "schedule for learning"
for the use of students in his family school; this "Daily Schedule of Study in the Ch'eng Family School,"59 which included a detailed curriculum and a method of reading
through it, proved highly popular and is said to have become a model for study in academies throughout later times.60 In
59
. "Ch'engshih chiashu tushu fennien jihch'eng." This work is partially translated in Meskill, Academies in Ming China, pp. 160164, and Ebrey, Chinese Civilization, pp. 113
117.
60
. See Meskill, Academies in Ming China, p. 61, particularly n. 55.

1415, at Ming imperial command, the Compendium of Teachings on Nature and Principle (Hsingli tach'üan), an anthology of the NeoConfucian teachings of
the Ch'engChu school, was compiled and thereafter used as the official basis of the civil service examinations; three centuries later, in 1714, the Ch'ing emperor
permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or

K'anghsi (r. 16611722) had passages from the writings and conversations of Chu Hsi gathered together in the Complete Works of Master Chu (Chutzu ta
ch'üan), and a year later he sponsored the compilation of the Essential Teachings on Nature and Principle (Hsingli chingi), which was more or less an
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without

abridgment of the earlier Compendium of Teachings on Nature and Principle.61 These three governmentsponsored and widely available anthologies all gave
considerable space to Chu Hsi's views on learning, the issue dearer to him and more central than any other to his lifelong mission to resuscitate and transmit the great
Confucian Way.
Copyright @ 1990. University of California Press.

61
. For a discussion of the Hsingli chingi, and how it compares to the Hsingli tach'üan, see Chan." The Hsingli chingi."

applicable copyright law.

Contemporary Monologues
33% (6)
Contemporary Monologues
11 pages
Lao Tzu
No ratings yet
Lao Tzu
231 pages
Buddho-Daoist Interaction in China
100% (2)
Buddho-Daoist Interaction in China
144 pages
Daoist Apophatic Meditation - Selections From The Classical - Harold D - Roth - 2015
100% (1)
Daoist Apophatic Meditation - Selections From The Classical - Harold D - Roth - 2015
84 pages
Creative Fiction
100% (1)
Creative Fiction
22 pages
Ultimate Reality in Confucianism
No ratings yet
Ultimate Reality in Confucianism
10 pages
The Four Books of Confucianism
100% (1)
The Four Books of Confucianism
107 pages
Test 1
50% (4)
Test 1
14 pages
Chinese Literature Singapore Asiapac 201
No ratings yet
Chinese Literature Singapore Asiapac 201
16 pages
Eminent Monk
100% (1)
Eminent Monk
230 pages
Stylized Characters Ebook
No ratings yet
Stylized Characters Ebook
35 pages
Z Xi's Spiritual Practice As The Basis of His Central Philosophical Concepts
No ratings yet
Z Xi's Spiritual Practice As The Basis of His Central Philosophical Concepts
36 pages
École Française d'Extrême-Orient Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
100% (1)
École Française d'Extrême-Orient Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie
13 pages
The 3 Sovereigns Tradition
No ratings yet
The 3 Sovereigns Tradition
334 pages
Kung-Sun Lung Tzu
100% (1)
Kung-Sun Lung Tzu
35 pages
W. Allyn Rickett Guanzi I 3
No ratings yet
W. Allyn Rickett Guanzi I 3
67 pages
Religious Daoism
100% (1)
Religious Daoism
46 pages
Shizi: China's First Syncretist
67% (3)
Shizi: China's First Syncretist
17 pages
SCC 2
No ratings yet
SCC 2
722 pages
GCSE Spanish: Improve Your Writing & Speaking Skills
No ratings yet
GCSE Spanish: Improve Your Writing & Speaking Skills
4 pages
Chinese Philosophy Terms and Questions
No ratings yet
Chinese Philosophy Terms and Questions
3 pages
Magnitude of Ming PDF
100% (1)
Magnitude of Ming PDF
392 pages
Graham A.C. Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Science, 1978
No ratings yet
Graham A.C. Later Mohist Logic, Ethics and Science, 1978
609 pages
Ho-Shang-Kung's Commentary On Lao-Tse Part 3
No ratings yet
Ho-Shang-Kung's Commentary On Lao-Tse Part 3
32 pages
W. Allyn RickettGuanzi II1
No ratings yet
W. Allyn RickettGuanzi II1
150 pages
Religious Dimensions of Filial Piety As
No ratings yet
Religious Dimensions of Filial Piety As
52 pages
W. Allyn Rickett Guanzi I 2
No ratings yet
W. Allyn Rickett Guanzi I 2
102 pages
To Be Translated or Not To Be
No ratings yet
To Be Translated or Not To Be
67 pages
DEBUT Script
100% (1)
DEBUT Script
3 pages
Benefits of Judo Kata
100% (1)
Benefits of Judo Kata
11 pages
Answers To Forty-Eight Questions About Pure Land PDF
No ratings yet
Answers To Forty-Eight Questions About Pure Land PDF
76 pages
Chinese Religions
100% (4)
Chinese Religions
38 pages
Original Tao - Inward Training (Nei-Yeh) and The Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations From The Asian Classics) (PDFDrive)
No ratings yet
Original Tao - Inward Training (Nei-Yeh) and The Foundations of Taoist Mysticism (Translations From The Asian Classics) (PDFDrive)
294 pages
PAI WEN P'IEN 百問篇: or, The Hundred Questions
100% (1)
PAI WEN P'IEN 百問篇: or, The Hundred Questions
26 pages
The Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
100% (1)
The Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
4 pages
Daoism: A Short Bibliography
100% (3)
Daoism: A Short Bibliography
42 pages
Confucius - Zhu Xi - Reflections On Things at Hand
100% (1)
Confucius - Zhu Xi - Reflections On Things at Hand
591 pages
Shaughnessy, Edward - Rewriting Early Chinese Texts
100% (2)
Shaughnessy, Edward - Rewriting Early Chinese Texts
147 pages
Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen - Alchemy and Self-Cultivation in Literary Circles of The Northern Song Dynasty - Su Shi and His Techniques of Survival
100% (1)
Baldrian-Hussein, Farzeen - Alchemy and Self-Cultivation in Literary Circles of The Northern Song Dynasty - Su Shi and His Techniques of Survival
20 pages
Ho-Shang-Kung's Commentary On Lao-Tse Part 2
No ratings yet
Ho-Shang-Kung's Commentary On Lao-Tse Part 2
25 pages
Primer Mahayana
No ratings yet
Primer Mahayana
141 pages
Louise Komjathy-Handbooks For Daoist Practise Scripture of The Hidden Talisman
No ratings yet
Louise Komjathy-Handbooks For Daoist Practise Scripture of The Hidden Talisman
25 pages
Part One Identity of Chinese Philosophy and Its M
100% (1)
Part One Identity of Chinese Philosophy and Its M
29 pages
Chu Hsi's Rules
No ratings yet
Chu Hsi's Rules
4 pages
1992 The Sage in Chinese Tradition
No ratings yet
1992 The Sage in Chinese Tradition
8 pages
Daoism Brief Intro
No ratings yet
Daoism Brief Intro
9 pages
Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study o F Ge H Ong's Traditions o F D Ivine Transcendents. Berkeley
No ratings yet
Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study o F Ge H Ong's Traditions o F D Ivine Transcendents. Berkeley
3 pages
Zhong Huis Laozi Commentary and The Debate On Capacity and Nature in Thirdcentury China
No ratings yet
Zhong Huis Laozi Commentary and The Debate On Capacity and Nature in Thirdcentury China
59 pages
Du Guangting and The Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists
No ratings yet
Du Guangting and The Hagiographies of Tang Female Daoists
42 pages
(Taoism) Wieger, Leon - Wisdom of The Daoist Masters
67% (3)
(Taoism) Wieger, Leon - Wisdom of The Daoist Masters
309 pages
Discriminations in Cultivating The Tao: Liu Yiming (1734-1821) and His Xiuzhen Houbian Fabrizio Pregadio
No ratings yet
Discriminations in Cultivating The Tao: Liu Yiming (1734-1821) and His Xiuzhen Houbian Fabrizio Pregadio
27 pages
Kohn, Eternal Life in Taoist Mysticism
100% (3)
Kohn, Eternal Life in Taoist Mysticism
20 pages
Burton Watson - The - Tso - Chuan
No ratings yet
Burton Watson - The - Tso - Chuan
73 pages
DaoistFoundations KomjathyTownsend
No ratings yet
DaoistFoundations KomjathyTownsend
10 pages
Jiaosheng Wang - The Complete Ci-Poems of Li Qingzhao. A New English Translation
No ratings yet
Jiaosheng Wang - The Complete Ci-Poems of Li Qingzhao. A New English Translation
156 pages
DAOISM
No ratings yet
DAOISM
10 pages
胡梵
No ratings yet
胡梵
23 pages
Essential Readings On Chinese Philosophy
No ratings yet
Essential Readings On Chinese Philosophy
19 pages
The Great Learning
No ratings yet
The Great Learning
6 pages
Zhou Dunyis Diagram of The Supreme Ultimate Explained (Taijito
No ratings yet
Zhou Dunyis Diagram of The Supreme Ultimate Explained (Taijito
19 pages
Shangqing School
100% (1)
Shangqing School
3 pages
Buddhism in The West
No ratings yet
Buddhism in The West
11 pages
Coxem CX-200Plus - Operating Manual
No ratings yet
Coxem CX-200Plus - Operating Manual
4 pages
3-Minute Korean S1 #1 Self: Lesson Transcript
No ratings yet
3-Minute Korean S1 #1 Self: Lesson Transcript
4 pages
Human Automata
No ratings yet
Human Automata
17 pages
Models Vol. 244: Archmodels Vol. 244 Includes 44 Professional, High
No ratings yet
Models Vol. 244: Archmodels Vol. 244 Includes 44 Professional, High
13 pages
Strindberg and The Modern Drama and Theatre (Looking For A Legacy)
No ratings yet
Strindberg and The Modern Drama and Theatre (Looking For A Legacy)
12 pages
LTM185AT01 Samsung
No ratings yet
LTM185AT01 Samsung
31 pages
The Tale of Aphroditian (Slavonic and Greek)
No ratings yet
The Tale of Aphroditian (Slavonic and Greek)
12 pages
05b5ad75b92540 - Ch-1 - Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry - SL Deore PDF
No ratings yet
05b5ad75b92540 - Ch-1 - Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry - SL Deore PDF
17 pages
XYZmaker Suite User Manual - EN PDF
No ratings yet
XYZmaker Suite User Manual - EN PDF
14 pages
Ap07 Ch20 Child Rearing DBQ
No ratings yet
Ap07 Ch20 Child Rearing DBQ
9 pages
Ethnus Consultancy Services Pvt. LTD
No ratings yet
Ethnus Consultancy Services Pvt. LTD
17 pages
Moses CV
No ratings yet
Moses CV
3 pages
Yunani: Infinitive
No ratings yet
Yunani: Infinitive
9 pages
Puppet Show
No ratings yet
Puppet Show
5 pages
SEMrush-Position Tracking Overview (Organic) - Multimediakingdom Com bd-9th Sep 2020 PDF
No ratings yet
SEMrush-Position Tracking Overview (Organic) - Multimediakingdom Com bd-9th Sep 2020 PDF
4 pages
Yellow Birthday Cake With Milk Chocolate Frosting - Modern Honey
No ratings yet
Yellow Birthday Cake With Milk Chocolate Frosting - Modern Honey
2 pages
Introtoscriptures
No ratings yet
Introtoscriptures
2 pages
Ahem's Declaration
No ratings yet
Ahem's Declaration
4 pages
Othello Tic Tac Toe
No ratings yet
Othello Tic Tac Toe
1 page
Higher Level Result
No ratings yet
Higher Level Result
3 pages
Jackie and Chiles Talk 2
No ratings yet
Jackie and Chiles Talk 2
2 pages
The Shundai Zatsuwa: A JAPANESE PHILOSOPHER
From Everand
The Shundai Zatsuwa: A JAPANESE PHILOSOPHER
Murō Naokiyo
No ratings yet
Philosophy: A Collection of Idea, Theories, and Ancient Wisdom
From Everand
Philosophy: A Collection of Idea, Theories, and Ancient Wisdom
Philip Rivaldi
5/5 (3)
Philosophy: Wise Ideas from Eastern and Western Philosophers
From Everand
Philosophy: Wise Ideas from Eastern and Western Philosophers
Philip Rivaldi
5/5 (3)
Philosophy: History, Background, and Theories from Great Thinkers
From Everand
Philosophy: History, Background, and Theories from Great Thinkers
Philip Rivaldi
5/5 (3)
Reinventing Confucianism: New Confucian Movement
From Everand
Reinventing Confucianism: New Confucian Movement
Umberto Bresciani
No ratings yet
I Ching Wisdom Volume Two: More Guidance from the Book of Answers
From Everand
I Ching Wisdom Volume Two: More Guidance from the Book of Answers
Wei Wu
No ratings yet
Confucius: History of China
From Everand
Confucius: History of China
Hourly History
No ratings yet